Aeromexico Connect, formerly known as Aerolitoral and the regional airline of Aeromexico operates Saab-34Bs and Embraer ERJ-145s with crew bases in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Guadalajara and Mexico City. It’s feeder services to Aeromexico’s hub airports makes it the biggest and most important regional airline in Mexico, offering more than 257 scheduled flights daily to 41 destinations in Mexico and 5 in the United States.

Established in 1988 as Servicios Aereos Litoral, the airline became a subsidiary of Aeromexico on 1 December 1990. Initially it had a fleet of 4 NAMC YS-11 aircrafts in 1988. By 1992, Aeromexico began another regional feeder airline, Aerovias de Poniente in Guadalajara using Fairchild Metros. The fleet was replaced and expanded within five years to 29 Fairchild Metro III and Fairchild Metro 23 aircraft between the two feeders.

The main base was moved to Monterrey and the following year Aeroponiente started operations from Guadalajara with the merging of the pilot seniority list and the AeroMexico logo was adopted. Since 1992 Aerolitoral had been the only source of pilots for AeroMexico with over 400 pilot transfers. By 1995 the airline had three bases with 29 airplanes.

Its network extended across the north of Mexico and routes to the US were operated for a brief time. In 1996, the two airlines merged into AeroLitoral but they needed a bigger plane. Saab 340Bs entered in late 1997. The next year new services to the US were added from Piedras, Negras, Coahuila, and from Chihuahua to Dallas, Texas. In August 1999 a new CEO, Raul Saenz Campos replaced the long reign of Carlos Trevino.

Between 2000 and 2002, 13 more Sab 340Bs were added to replace Metros with a peak fleet of 22 Saab 340Bs. After September 11, 2001 attacks, AeroLitoral experienced a drop in air traffic and downsized to survive. In 2002 many employees were laid off including 50 pilots. On behalf of Aero Mexico, services to Los Angeles and Ontario were introduced.

In 2003, AeroLitoral recovered with a fleet of 3 Fairchild Metro and 22 Saab 340s plus announced the first 5 Embraer ERJ 145’s orders with deliveries starting in mid-2004. In May 2004 the first 3 ERJ 145s arrived from Brazil to Monterrey. The first flights were mainly to Chihuahua, Guadalajara and Juarez, and two more ERJ-145 aircrafts were added by the end of 2004. In 2005 the first scheduled flights to and fro Mexico City was introduced to Ciudad Obregon and Los Mochis using the ERJ-145 and later 5 more ERJ-145, totaling 10 introducing new routes in and out of Mexico City.

In 2006 the two operations in Mexico International Airport that began in 2005, grew to a bigger operation extending flight services to Campeche and Durango. AeroLitoral returned to Austin in 2007 and reopened the Guadalajara hub with ERJ-145 crew base that grew to about 29 ERJ-145s together with the first 5 brand new Embraer ERJ 190 in October 2007. From September, service to Pozarica Ver resumed with ERJ-145 and in November 2007, Aeromexico Connect returned to Phoenix, Arizona.