Mexicana Airlines Begins Operations January 24

(México, NA 6 December) Mexicana Airlines, which went broke last August, will return to the air in 2011. The federal Labor Department announced that the airline will commence operations on January 24. The federal Transportation Department clarified that this will be “commercial operations only.” Flights will be restored at a later date, still unknown. Neither agency could explain how passengers would buy tickets without knowing when the planes will fly.

Mexicana left Acapulco with no connection to 65 destinations within Mexico and in other countries, causing a severe impact on tourism, travel agencies, hotels and restaurants. The travel packages (which include the air fare) were most negatively impacted.

Cynics predicted the rapid return of a refurbished Mexicana, supported by private investment. As a state company, it was ideologically unpopular with the current, conservative regime, which for two presidential mandates has been privatizing every conceivable state enterprise except for PEMEX. Their opponents have accused the government of purposefully running Mexicana into the ground so that it could re-emerge, phoenix-like, as a private entity. Traditionally the new investors are all well-heeled friends or patrons of the presidential party. So far, no news reports have emerged about where the new financing has come from to permit the resuscitation of Mexicana.