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By KELIN DILLON

On Monday, April 10, Mexico’s Second District Judge in Commercial Insolvency Matters Saúl Martínez Lira officially declared notorious Mexican airline Interjet as bankrupt and ordered the company’s assets to be put up for auction in hopes of covering Interjet’s purported 40 billion-peso debt.

Interjet previously entered bankruptcy proceedings in August 2022 after nearly two years without operations, though company director Carlos del Valle claimed at the time that Interjet would resume service across Mexico at some point the future. 

That very same August, Del Valle went on to claim that Interjet had a payment plan scheduled with Mexico’s Tax Administration Service (SAT) to pay off the airline’s estimated $250 million in tax debt, a plan that seemingly never came to fruition.

However, between Interjet’s plethora of problems – like its pending debts to creditors and the SAT, unissued backpay and benefits to an estimated 5,000 employees, a mid-2021 arrest warrant issued against former Interjet president and company founder  Miguel Alemán Magnani for 66.2 billion pesos in tax evasion, and the August 2021 arrest of Interjet Board of Directors President Alejandro del Valle on the charges of 645 million peso fraud – federal Judge Martínez Lira officially declared the Mexican airline’s bankruptcy on April 10.

“On this date, a state of bankruptcy for the merchant ABC Aerolíneas SA de CV (Interjet’s company name) is declared,” ruled Martínez Lira at the time, going on to instruct the naming of a a trustee to oversee the company’s liquidation. Conciliator Gerardo Sierra Arrazola was later ratified as the designated trustee of Interjet’s assets.

“The trustee is ordered to proceed with the liquidation of the assets and rights that make up the Estate, in terms of Article 197 of the Commercial Bankruptcy Law, seeking to obtain the greatest possible profit for their liquidation, in order to make payment to the creditors,” continued the ruling.

Alemán Magnani has since spoken out from his exile in France to place the blame of Interjet’s failure on being “defrauded” by his former advisors, Alejandro del Valle and the now-exiled Mexican businessman Carlos Cabal Peniche, claiming the duo has much to explain to the Mexican authorities about Interjet’s infamous collapse.