Mexicana has appointed Globe Air Cargo as its exclusive general sales agent in the UK to market capacity on its new, direct flights from London Gatwick to Mexico City. The Mexican Airline commenced twice-weekly flights from London on 18 January to Mexico City’s Benito Juarez Airport using Boeing 767-200 aircraft. The Thursday and Sunday departures each provide up to seven tonnes of cargo capacity. Next month the airline is due to increase frequencies on the route to four services a week with the introduction of Wednesday and Saturday operations. The London-Mexico City route is the airline’s first transatlantic service and its first venture into Europe. Globe Air Cargo expects to generate some 1,500 tonnes of cargo per annum for the airline from the UK. Mark Pulling, managing director of Globe Air Cargo in the UK, said: ¡°This is a significant new contract win for us in the UK and was achieved against strong competition from other GSAs. We have established strong interest from the freight forwarding community in Mexicana’s direct and on-forwarding destinations from London and expect to generate high load factors to this high yield market.¡± The airline’s main destinations are Mexico City, Guadalajara, Cancun and Monterrey. Globe Air Cargo will also market an extensive choice of on-forwarding destinations, including Tijuana, Leon, Aguascalientes, Puerto Vallarta, Chihuahua, Villahermosa, San Hose Del Cabo, Acapulco, Merida, Veracruz and La Paz. Other destinations, including San Pedro Sula, San Antonio and Guatamala, are available on request. Mexicana was the country’s first airline nearly 90 years ago. It now serves over 50 destinations in Mexico, Europe, North, Central and South America and operates some 300 flights a day.