Mexican State-Run Airline Mexicana de Aviación Slashes Routes by Half
Mexicana de Aviación, the state-run airline, has announced the closure of eight of its 17 routes from the Aeropuerto Internacional Felipe Ángeles (AIFA), effective January 6, 2024. This move comes barely a year after the airline’s relanzamiento, with the company shutting down services to Acapulco, Campeche, Guadalajara, Ixtapa, Nuevo Laredo, Puerto Vallarta, Uruapan, and Villahermosa without publicly clarifying the reasons behind the decision.
The news of the route closures was posted on the airline’s website on January 1, 2024, without any formal announcement on their official social media accounts. This sudden development raises questions about the future of Mexicana de Aviación, which was acquired by the Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional in December 2023 with the aim of reviving the ailing airline.
Mexicana de Aviación was relaunched on December 26, 2023, with a flight from the AIFA, in the State of Mexico, marking the beginning of a new chapter for the company that had been inoperative for over a decade. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador entrusted the airline’s management to the Mexican Army, confident that it would prevent potential privatization attempts.
However, despite the optimism surrounding the airline’s revival, Mexicana de Aviación has fallen short of its targets. In its first year of operations, the airline transported only 382,000 passengers, far from its goal of three million annual passengers by 2027. Currently, Mexicana’s market share in the domestic aviation sector is less than 1%, according to data from the Agencia Federal de Aviación Civil (AFAC).
In its first anniversary communiqué, Mexicana de Aviación expressed confidence in its future, boasting about its popular destinations and plans to incorporate 20 Embraer E2 aircraft into its fleet by 2027. Yet, the company made no mention of the significant reduction in its routes.
With an initial investment of 4,000 million pesos (around 194 million USD), three Boeing aircraft, and two leased Embraer planes, Mexicana de Aviación began operations with high hopes. Now, the airline finds itself offering refunds to passengers affected by the cancelled routes.
The sudden closure of these routes raises concerns about the airline’s financial stability and its long-term prospects. As Mexicana de Aviación navigates these challenges, industry observers are left questioning the viability of state-run airlines in Mexico’s competitive aviation market.
