Mexican government reaches “historic agreement” to revive Mexicana de Aviación

Redacción - Aviación al Día

2 years ago

The Mexican government announced Thursday a “historic agreement” with the 7,407 workers of the defunct Mexicana de Aviación, to whom it will pay 815 million pesos (almost $48 million) for the Army to use the brand name for its new commercial airline.

The operation, formalized on Wednesday, will include three real estate properties and a flight simulator, and the money will be distributed among all former employees who have been struggling for 13 years, when Mexico’s largest airline went bankrupt, said Luisa María Alcalde, Mexico’s Secretary of the Interior.

“Today a historic agreement has been reached to achieve justice for 7,407 Mexicanas de Aviación workers. Pilots, flight attendants, ground personnel, workers in positions of trust and retirees reached a consensus to sell the Mexicana Airlines brand to the Mexican Government, thus allowing the airline, which will belong to all Mexicans, to take flight again,” he sai

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The President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, had expressed since May 2021 his intention to revive Mexicana de Aviación, a government-owned airline that was the second oldest in the Americas, after Avianca, but which went bankrupt in August 2010.

Following the agreement, the Army will use the brand name for the new state-owned commercial airline that will sell tickets starting in September, said Luis Cresencio Sandoval, Secretary of National Defense.

With an initial investment of US$4 billion, the new company will take delivery of three Boeing 737-800 aircraft on September 30 and another seven on October 30, with which it will fly to 20 destinations from Felipe Angeles International Airport (AIFA).

The initial destinations will be Cancun, Monterrey, Guadalajara, Tijuana, Campeche, Chetumal, Merida, Puerto Vallarta, Ixtapa, Cozumel, Los Cabos, Hermosillo, Ciudad Juarez, Villahermosa, Huatulco, Oaxaca, Acapulco, Mazatlan, La Paz and Leon. EFE