The airline, a joint venture between the Ryan family and Mexican bus group Inversionistas en Autotransportes Mexicanos (IAM), has signed a deal with Austin-Bergstrom Airport in Texas and is also looking for other destinations in the US.

A spokesman for Viva Aerobus told the Sunday Tribune that the 15 million legal Mexican immigrants in the US were its primary target market. He also said that the airline hoped to benefit should a new version of immigration reform pass the US Congress.

The spokesman added that the airline believed that there were massive growth prospects in the domestic Mexican market. "When you consider that there are around 100 million people in Mexico and at this point, only six or seven millon have ever travelled by plane, the scope for growth is enormous."

Meanwhile, AustinBergstrom Airport's executive director Jim Smith told city officials recently that Viva Aerobus's plan was to sell one-way tickets at between $25 and $35. Under its deal with the airport, Viva Aerobus will operate flights to five destinations in Mexico, including Monterrey, where it has its headquarters.

For its part, the city of Austin has teamed up with General Electric to construct a low-cost terminal specifically for the airline. The goahead for the construction of the terminal is expected to be given next week.

Earlier this year, Viva Aerobus's chief executive Mike Szucs, former chief operating officer at Easyjet, told an aviation conference in New York that the airline planned to launch services to California.

The airline launched last November but, according to Szucs, it has achieved average load factors of 85% and was "sweating its assets hard" with an average daily aircraft usage of 14.5 hours per day.

The airline plans to have a fleet of ten 737s by the end of this year.

Ryan and his family own 49% of the airline, along with 5.9% of Ryanair, 10.2% of US carrier Allegiant and 16 % of Singapore-based Tiger Airways.