Southwest Airlines has designs on Mexico City, and recently requested it be considered ahead of American Airlines and Volaris for slot divestures at Mexico City International Airport that opened as a result of Delta Air Lines’ $1.5 billion joint venture with Aeromexico. The joint venture was approved earlier this year by Mexico’s federal competition commission under the condition eight pairs of slots at the airport were relinquished. Southwest’s request hasn’t gone uncontested. In a letter emailed to the U.S. Department of Transportation last month, Howard Kass, vice president of regulatory affairs, American Airlines, wrote, “Southwest’s opposition to American’s Surreply and Volaris’s Answer1 makes clear that its primary purpose in this proceeding is to make the pool of carriers eligible for any divested MEX slots as small as possible, thereby maximizing its chance of receiving a large number of slots.” “The imposition of constraints on slot transfers at this early stage of the process is likely to prevent public benefits from being maximized,” added Kass. “If Southwest is so confident that its use of any divested slots will produce the greatest public benefits, then Southwest should be willing to compete against all carriers.” Kass recommended the DOT “ensure that all carriers, including American, Southwest, and Volaris, have the opportunity seek the divested slots.”