Mexico leader: open domestic flights to foreign airlines

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says he wants to allow foreign airlines to operate domestic service between Mexican cities, to drive down prices. Mexican law currently prohibits foreign carriers from operating purely domestic flights. For example, a U.S. airline can currently fly from New York to Cancun, but not Cancun to Mexico City. Known as “cabotage,” the president wants to allow the practice to lower ticket prices. The proposal would fly in the face of López Obrador’s push to make Mexico self-sufficient. But the president also wants to lower domestic airfares, and bring service to smaller cities that lack flights.