Mexicana de Aviación, an airline founded in 1921 and which suspended operations in 2010, is expected to resume flying later this year, according to plans by Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
In order to reach its goal, the National Defense Secretariat agreed a few days ago to purchase the carrier’s assets, after reaching an agreement with the former employees’ unions.
Among the acquired assets are the Mexicana brand, a training center, two buildings, a workshop and a flight simulator. The total amount would reach 817 million pesos, or about US$42.5 million.
The current Mexican federal government’s plan is to relaunch Mexicana de Aviación under state control and for that it would already be discussing the leasing of Boeing jets.
Obrador, who is said to be unhappy with Mexico’s private airlines, including Aeromexico, intends for the new Mexicana de Aviación to take over 11% of the country’s air travel market.
11 million passengers
A year before ending its operations, Mexicana had a fleet of 110 aircraft and had transported 11 million passengers, 40% of them on international routes.
Among the planes operated were jets from the A320 family, including the A318, the Boeing 757 and 767, the DC-10 and two A330-200.
The airline was a member of Star Alliance until 2009 when it switched to Oneworld. Several attempts to revive Mexicana were made in the following years, but without success.
