IAM, one of Ireland's major cargo GSSAs, is staging a new drive for traffic to Mexico, following the recent signing of an interline agreement between its principal American Airlines (AA) and freighter operator Aerounion.

Under the agreement, AA can now offer capacity to both Mexico City and Guadalajara on its daily wide-body services from Dublin and Shannon, connecting with the twice-daily A300 freighters in Los Angeles.

The new services overcome previously limited capacity out of Los Angeles, and enable AA to compete for Mexico shipments with European carriers which have to truck eastwards back to their hubs, before flying west.

IAM managing director Ian McCool said: "We have not pushed for Mexico business in the past, because of the risk of backlogs and offloads. AA has an excellent reputation, which we do not want to compromise, by accepting business we cannot handle.

"But the gloves are off now. With this new freighter connection, we can accept large shipments, regular volume traffic and large pieces with total confidence."