In an emailed statement on Friday, Mexico’s bigwig airline group Nuevo Grupo Aeronautico SA said that the grounding of all the flights of the company’s Compania Mexicana de Aviacion will also affect the operations of the low-cost airlines MexicanaClick and MexicanaLink.
Noting that Mexicana will start reducing flights soon, Mexico’s transport and communications minister Juan Molinar Horcasitas said in a separate statement that the suspension of the flights will affect not only the extensive domestic routes of the carrier, but also hit the service on its 15 routes that serve the US, including the ones to New York and Los Angeles.
According to a Grupo Mexicana Website, the airline operated 69 planes under the Mexicana brand; 35 aircraft under MexicanaClick; and 15 planes under MexicanaLink. Furthermore, Mexicana also has 165 sales locations.
Horcasitas further added Tenedora K, the investors’ group that bought the majority of Mexicana last week, will seek the infusion of additional capital into the company. Other than Tenedors K, the pilots’ union of the country holds 5 percent of Mexicana, which filed for protection under Chapter 15 of the US Bankruptcy Code on August 3, citing the failure to reach cost-saving agreements with labor unions.
Speaking at a news conference, Horcasitas said the government will, this time round, not bail out the airline; and added that “the company’s restructuring will have to take place with the participation of its shareholders, new shareholders, unions, creditors and other parties with a legal interest in the process.”