Aeromar

If you went spotting in Mexico City in the 2000s or 2010s, you know the picture: Between jets from Aeroméxico, Interjet and Volaris, a small ATR with “Aeromar” titles taxis to the runway. For around 35 years, Aeromar was the turboprop airline of the Mexican capital. In February 2023 it was over – after a payment deadline from the airport and debts in the billions. This page summarizes what you need to know about the historic airline and how to sort old Aeromar photos cleanly.

Aeromar at a glance

Aeromar was a Mexican regional airline based at Mexico City Airport. The company’s official name was Transportes Aeromar, S.A. de C.V., with Grupo Aeromar behind it. The airline was founded on January 29, 1987, and the first flight went from Toluca to Acapulco in November 1987 – with an ATR 42 that had been ferried from Toulouse to Mexico only a few days earlier.

As early as 1988, Aeromar moved its base from Toluca Airport to Mexico City Airport. The airline stayed there until the end, with offices and its own lounge in Terminal 2. Guadalajara served as a second hub.

The business model was classically regional. Aeromar mainly served cities that were too small or too little in demand for jets and brought passengers to the capital, where they could connect to the big airlines. In addition, there were at times routes to the US, mainly to Texas, and flights to Cuba.

Codes and callsign

• IATA code VW: appeared in the flight number, on departure boards, tickets and flight schedules.
• ICAO code TAO: derived from “Transportes Aeromar,” this is how Aeromar appeared in the air traffic control flight plan.
• Callsign AEROMAR: crews used it to identify themselves on the radio.

Because Aeromar offered many flights as codeshares with United, Aeromar routes also appeared in booking systems under United flight numbers. For assigning a photo, though, what always counts is who actually operated the flight – and you can tell that from the aircraft and the ICAO code, not from the marketing number.

History: from Toluca to the end in 2023

The early years

Aeromar was an ATR airline from the start. The first aircraft, an ATR 42 with the registration XA-PEP, arrived at the end of October 1987 directly from the manufacturer in Toulouse. With the move to Mexico City in 1988, the small operation became a fixed part of the capital’s traffic. In the 1990s, the fleet grew with further ATR 42s, including the ATR 42-500 version with six-bladed propellers.

Partners instead of an alliance

Aeromar never joined an alliance. Instead, the airline relied on partners: In the early 1990s there were codeshares with Aeroméxico and Mexicana, and later Continental Airlines became the most important partner. From 2011, a codeshare ran on all routes from Mexico City. After Continental merged with United Airlines, the partnership passed to United, and passengers earned miles in the MileagePlus program. In the last years, agreements with Turkish Airlines, Emirates and Air Canada were added.

Jets as an episode

In 2010, Aeromar added Bombardier CRJ200 regional jets to its fleet. The three jets remained an episode: By early 2015 they were gone again, and the airline focused entirely on turboprops once more.

Renewal from 2016

In November 2016, Aeromar placed an order for eight new ATRs, plus options on six more. From the end of 2016, ATR 42-600s and the larger ATR 72-600 joined the fleet. The older ATR 42s of the first series disappeared by 2018.

Crisis and end

In 2018, talks about a stake by the Synergy Group, then owner of Avianca, fell through. From 2020, the pandemic hit the already indebted airline hard. The fleet shrank, the schedule got thinner and thinner, and according to Mexican media, the tax authority was already tapping its cash in 2022.

In early 2023, the situation came to a head. Mexico City Airport demanded payment of debts of more than 500 million pesos and set a deadline of February 15. An investor from Brazil who wanted to take over Aeromar did not get the deal. On February 15, 2023, Aeromar announced the final shutdown and cited financial problems and a lack of viable agreements for continued operations as the reason. Mexican media put total debts at several billion pesos, with more than 5 billion often cited; according to reports, around 600 employees were affected. The government rejected a bailout.

According to media reports, the last route led to Ixtepec in the state of Oaxaca; as an international destination, mainly McAllen in Texas had remained in the last years.

The fleet: ATR from start to finish

Hardly any airline stayed as loyal to one manufacturer as Aeromar did to the turboprop maker ATR. The following overview summarizes the fleet history; exact numbers differ slightly depending on the source.

Type	Period at Aeromar	Role	Spotter note
ATR 42-300/320	from 1987 to 2018	Initial equipment and long the backbone of the fleet	Four-bladed propellers, the first example carried XA-PEP
ATR 42-500	from the 1990s to the end	More modern ATR 42	Six-bladed propellers
Bombardier CRJ200	2010–2015	Short foray into jet operations	Two rear engines, T-tail
ATR 42-600	2016–2023	Renewal of the small class	Next-generation glass cockpit, hard to tell from the -500 on the outside
ATR 72-600	2016–2023	The airline’s largest type	Much longer fuselage, the most common type at the end

At the time of the shutdown, the fleet consisted of nine aircraft according to fleet overviews: two ATR 42-500s, two ATR 42-600s and five ATR 72-600s. In the last months, according to media reports, fewer and fewer aircraft were available to the airline anyway, and the schedule was correspondingly thinned out.

ATR 42 or ATR 72? How to sort old photos

Older Aeromar pictures almost always show an ATR. The only question is which one. You tell the two sizes apart fastest by fuselage length, and the generation by propellers and details.

To tell the ATR from its competitor the Dash 8, the guide Telling turboprops apart is worth a look. At Aeromar it’s simpler: There was no Dash 8 in the fleet.

How to recognize Aeromar

The most important feature is the aircraft type itself. If an old photo from Mexico City shows an ATR turboprop with “Aeromar” titles, the case is clear. For the livery, it’s worth checking the date of the shot: Over 35 years there are photos from very different eras, and what reliably connects them is mainly the titles and the type.

The second feature is the registration. Mexican commercial aircraft carry the prefix XA-, followed by three letters. The airline’s first aircraft was XA-PEP. With the registration you can assign old photos unambiguously to an aircraft and follow its later life. How the system works is explained in the article Understanding aircraft registrations.

What became of the aircraft

When an airline ends, its aircraft rarely disappear completely. ATR turboprops are in demand, and many aircraft were leased anyway. Lessors were also among Aeromar’s creditors. When a leased aircraft moves to a new operator after a collapse, it is usually re-registered. For you, that means: The old XA registration disappears, but the manufacturer’s serial number stays.

If you want to track down a former Aeromar ATR, it’s best to go by serial number. How to find out an aircraft’s age and history from its registration is covered in the guide Finding out an aircraft’s age. Sometimes former aircraft fly for a while in a mixed livery – remnants of the old design with a new registration. Such transitional pictures are popular with collectors.

Aeromar in the Mexican market

For decades, Aeromar was a fixture of Mexican regional traffic, but never the only one. In the capital’s traffic, the airline competed mainly with Aeroméxico Connect, Aeroméxico’s regional subsidiary, which flies Embraer jets. Where Aeromar relied on turboprops for short runways and thin demand, today mainly jets and the low-cost airlines serve many of the former destinations.

Looking at other regions shows how typical the model was: In South America and the Caribbean, too, there were regional airlines with ATR fleets struggling with thin margins, such as the eastern Caribbean’s LIAT. If you like photographing turboprops, you’ll find similar subjects at smaller airports in Europe – tips are in the article Spotting at small regional airports.

Common mix-ups

• Confusing Aeromar with Aeroméxico – the names sound similar, but Aeroméxico is the big network airline with jets, while Aeromar was the turboprop airline.
• Taking Aeromar for a Star Alliance member – despite the codeshare with United, Aeromar belonged to no alliance.
• Equating a United flight number with a United aircraft – many codeshare flights were operated by Aeromar ATRs.
• Logging every ATR 42 the same way – decades lie between the early series, the -500 and the -600.
• Assuming an ATR 72 in a photo from before 2016 – the longer ATR came to Aeromar only with the fleet renewal.
• Searching for former Aeromar aircraft by the old registration – after the change of operator, the serial number helps.

Conclusion

For 35 years, Aeromar was Mexico’s turboprop airline: started in 1987 with a single ATR 42, at the end flying the latest-generation ATR 72-600s. The close ties to United, the loyal ATR fleet and the abrupt end in February 2023 make it an exciting archive topic. If you note old photos cleanly with type, XA registration and date, you preserve a piece of Mexican aviation history.