Delta, Aeromexico win US court battle to keep joint venture

A U.S. appeals court overturned on Thursday the Trump administration's September 2025 order that sought to force Delta Air Lines and Aeromexico to unwind a joint venture.

The airlines sued last year to block the U.S. Department of Transportation order to repeal the nearly 10-year-old joint venture, which lets the carriers coordinate scheduling, pricing and capacity for U.S.-Mexico flights. The USDOT order was issued as part of several U.S. actions aimed at Mexico's aviation sector over competition concerns.

A court put the order on hold last year pending the legal challenge.

Delta, Aeromexico and the U.S. and Mexican governments did not immediately comment.

Last year, the Justice and Transportation departments called the joint venture "legalized collusion" that controls "almost 60% of operations at the fourth-largest international gateway to and from the United States," referring to Mexico City flights.

In separate actions last year, USDOT revoked approval for 13 routes by Mexican carriers into the U.S. and canceled all combined passenger and cargo flights by Mexican airlines to the United States from Mexico City's Felipe Angeles International Airport.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said last year Mexico "illegally canceled and froze U.S. carrier flights for three years without consequences."

The 11th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals said USDOT "did not reasonably explain why it conducted a far more limited market analysis in this case than it has always done in the past or why it imposed a requirement for approval of the joint venture that it did not require of similar joint ventures it approved in Japan."