Ownership of Mexicana de Aviacion has been transferred to a group of investors known as PC Capital under a restructuring plan that will provide more than $200 million to the bankrupt operator in the coming days.
The agreement shifts ownership from current owners Tenedora K to a group led by local investors Alejo Peralta Terán, Rubén Vila Garciasordo and Alejandro Ampudia Marco. These three and a group of foreign investors still finalizing their funding issues will assume control of the holding company Nuevo Grupo Aeronáutico, the airline says in a statement.
Shares have already been transferred to PC Capital, and the new funding is expected to be distributed before the end of the week. This process also initiates a restructuring plan that in essence lays off Mexicana’s entire payroll and re-employs a skeleton staff for the launch of revenue service March 4. About 35% of this staff, or 4,000 employees, will eventually be rehired.
Plans to resume revenue service by Feb. 28 have been deferred (Aviation Daily, Feb. 17), says a source close to the airline, although an “expeditionary” flight is still planned for that date. And while the flight is expected to operate between Mexico City and Cancun, regulatory requirements may shift the destination to San Antonio.
As previously reported by Aviation Week, Mexicana plans to return to revenue service with a fleet of seven Airbus narrowbodies, including one spare, serving about six mostly North American destinations. The airline then hopes to increase the fleet to 19 aircraft by the third week in April for the busy “Holy Week” holiday season, and some 40 or so aircraft by the start of the summer schedule.
Where this fleet will be sourced is still under discussion, although most of the lessors that provided Mexicana’s pre-bankruptcy fleet—with International Lease Finance Corp. the notable exception—prepared to provide some of the carrier’s fleet requirements. Aircraft once owned by Mexicana now in the possession of Bancomext, a major creditor, were expected to form part of the fleet, but recent political pressure on the bank appears to have halted that deal, according to one source.
This source also notes that the revitalization program can change “at any time.”
Source: Aviation Week
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