LONDON – The government of Mexico has signed a deal to purchase the now-defunct airline Mexicana. The deal was brokered with several aviation unions on Friday according to a Reuters report.
The deal is reportedly worth 811.1 million Mexican pesos and includes the rights to use the airlines branding, and also allows for the purchase of two buildings which are to be used as a technical training centre and flight simulator.
The Mexican government intends to use the Mexicana brand to launch a new military run commercial airline. The airline was originally declared bankrupt in 2014.
As of today, January 1, 2023, the government is set to cease all legal actions against the airline with respect to the bankruptcy proceedings.
About Mexicana
Compañía Mexicana de Aviación, S.A. de C.V. (usually shortened to Mexicana de Aviación or simply Mexicana) was Mexico’s oldest airline. The headquarters of the company were in the Mexicana de Aviación Tower in Colonia del Valle, Benito Juárez, Mexico City.
After KLM, Avianca and QANTAS, Mexicana was also one of the oldest continuously single-branded airlines. Prior to its cessation of operations on August 28, 2010, it was Mexico’s biggest airline and national flag carrier.
The group’s closure was announced by the company’s recently installed management team a short time after the group filed for Concurso Mercantil (Mexican law equivalent to U.S. Chapter 11) and U.S. Chapter 15.
On April 4, 2014, a judge declared Mexicana bankrupt and ordered to start selling off the company’s assets to repay the airline’s obligations.
Mexicana supported both domestic and international services, operating through North America, Central America, South America, the Caribbean and Europe.
The airline faced strong market competition from Aeromexico as well as low-cost airlines Volaris, Viva Aerobus and Interjet. The Mexicana group of airlines also included Mexicana Click and Mexicana Link and were operating a fleet of approximately 110 aircraft by the time they ceased operations in 2010.
The emergence of the raft of low-cost airlines undermined Mexicana’s market hold in domestic operations. Their subsequent demise effectively left Aeromexico as the sole Mexican full-service airline.
With respect to the proposition of the Mexican government reinvigorating the airline as a military run commercial operation, a Reuters report in October revealed the intention.
At that time, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had disclosed that the Mexican Army was working on an airline proposal, following a leak of information from government documents.
