Shortly after a year, turbulence arrived. Mexicana de Aviación suspended flights to 8 destinations, including Acapulco and Puerto Vallarta, and now only has a fleet of two aircraft, as recorded by the Federal Civil Aviation Agency (AFAC).
In December 2023, the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador turned to the Army in an emergency so that it would give it three Mexican Air Force aircraft to fulfill the promise of returning Mexicana de Aviación to the air, which has transported 382 thousand passengers.
The Mexican Air Force gave it three aircraft, but these would not be enough to begin operating the 20 promised destinations. To do so, it turned to a practically bankrupt company: TAR, which had a fleet of 5 aircraft, with a capacity of 50 passengers each.
As part of that contract, Mexicana paid 333 million 67 thousand 238 pesos, indicated the Grupo Aeroportuario, Ferroviario y de Servicios Auxiliares y Conexos Olmeca, Maya, Mexica (GAFSACOMM) in a transparency request made in November by El Financiero
It should be remembered that the government had the option of cutting off the supply of jet fuel to Transportes Aéreos Regionales (TAR) from 2022 due to non-payments, as it did with Interjet and Aeromar; however, despite the fact that the Queretaro airline accumulated delays in more than 20 thousand invoices between 2022 and September 2023, it was allowed to continue operating.
The departure of TAR as Mexicana’s partner-operator on flights that had the quality of being closer to regional routes calls into question the promise with which Mexicana was revived, which was to serve air markets that were not served by private airlines.
President Claudia Sheinbaum explained why Mexicana closed 8 routes. According to the president, the suspension was due to the airline carrying out a review of its strategic plan for 2025.
“A review is being carried out, as in any company, of which routes had the most passengers, which routes had the least. This week they will present the master plan to me,” Sheinbaum explained.
During the morning conference on Monday, January 6, the president ruled out that the suspension of 8 routes would endanger the existence of the airline. “Mexicana de Aviación will continue to be the company of the people of Mexico, it will continue to fly,” she said.
Without anticipating that TAR would ‘withdraw’ from the agreement with Mexicana, Sheinbaum Pardo explained that the suspension of routes is also due to the fact that Mexicana has to renew the rental contracts for the planes with TAR.
Mexicana only has three of its own aircraft. The other pair of planes were leased to TAR and were used for 19 operations per day, according to official data.
Last September, Mexicana announced the agreement to purchase 20 Embraer E195-E2 aircraft. Five of these aircraft will be delivered in 2025.
The purchase of the planes will cost close to 20 billion pesos, a figure that does not take into account the operating costs related to the operation of the airline.
Source. adninformativo
