Photo: Google

By KELIN DILLON

On Sunday, July 9, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) confirmed the federal government’s purchase of defunct airline Mexicana de Aviación after the result of an anticipated judicial decision that fell in the government’s favor, with AMLO likewise stating that the airline – which is set to be operated by the Mexican Armed Forces – will retain the name Mexicana de Aviación as it enters its new state-run chapter.

Just last week, a Mexican labor court ruled to dismiss the award of 50 percent of the profits from airline’s sale to 200 former Mexicana workers, clearing the way for the federal government’s previously agreed-upon purchase price of Mexicana de Aviación for approximately 817 million pesos.

“We are going to inaugurate the new airline this year, it’s going to be called Mexicana de Aviación because of the judicial branch trial that’s already been resolved,” López Obrador said during his presidential tour of Mexico’s southeast.

“We are going to acquire the workers that were laid off from Mexicana, which number around 6,500,” continued the federal executive. “We are going to buy the brand and two or three buildings and it is going to allow the workers to receive an income; now the oldest airline in Mexico is going to fly with the public company that we are creating, planes from the new Mexicana.” 

However, despite López Obrador’s public statements on the matter, daily Mexican newspaper El Financiero discovered that the federal government has yet to send any formal message to the Mexicana workers’ unions surrounding its purchase of the airline and the terms to follow.

While the Mexicana workers may still appeal the judicial decision, which could impede the government’s inauguration of the airline, AMLO still maintains that Mexicana de Aviación will be up and running by December of this year.