Mexicana Plans Revival Before New Years Day 2024
Joe Cortez December 06, 2023
Reuters reports the carrier – now run by the Mexican military – is planning to launch new routes despite having an agreement for aircraft fall through.
Revival Plans Calls for Flights with Boeing 737 Airframes
Mexicana was once one of the oldest airlines in the world, before being forced to fold in 2010. The revival of the name will be backed by the country’s government and run using military aircraft.
The company’s goal was to relaunch with as many as 10 Boeing 737-800 airframes by October 2023, alongside another agreement to rent Embraer 145 regional jets. With the deals falling through, the airline will now launch with two military aircraft: A Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 737-300.
To keep their operator license, Mexicana will need to take the two aircraft into possession. The 737s are currently being inspected before they can be “delivered” to the airline. From there, the airline will need to determine which “initial” routes will be offered by their target launch date of December 26, 2023.
With the government relaunch, officials in Mexico promised to offer a lower-cost option for air travel than other airlines operating in Mexico. It is unclear where the airline will fly, if they are looking to add international service sooner rather than later, or if they will seek to join an airline alliance.
If the carrier does look to U.S. expansion, Mexicana could be the first new carrier to fly north since the Federal Aviation Administration restored Mexico’s Category 1 safety rating. The FAA downgraded Mexico’s status in 2021, before bringing it back to the highest tier in September 2023.
Feature image courtesy: Aero Icarus/Flickr/CC-BY-2.0 DEED
..I remember seeing Mexicana Comet 4Cs at ORD in the late 1960s. Mexicana was the only North American operator of the famous Birtish jetliner The Comets were replaced in 1970-71 with 727-200s.
While this would be beneficial for the Mexico markets, my personal experience with the airline is abismyl. The last two times I flew, attempted to fly them, the check in line was so long, I almost missed the flight on one occasion. The other occassion they were noting your arrival time for the check in line that was about 50 people long, they check in one party in 1.5 hours, then made an annoucement in Spanish ONLY at Denver International Airport, that those in line would need to rebook. I had to find a spanish and english speaker in line to get the announcement in english. I was three minutes past the arrival cutoff. My companies travel department was surprised, tried to book me for the same flight the next day. I responded that I would WALK TO MEXICO CITY before I would fly that carrier. My company ultimately received a refund for my non-refundable fare
Will they restore my 1.3 million miles and status?
I'm leaning towards no.
In the past, American carriers have filed grievances against foreign airlines who are subsidized by their governments. How will they react if a government-subsidized Mexican airline starts offering cut rate fares to the US?
IMO, Mexicana won't last, because they won't exist on their own. Mexicana exists only to help support the new Santa Lucia airport, which exists only through the determination of AMLO. The whole purpose is to connect the airport domestically by connecting it with "underserved" airports, in keeping with AMLO's narrative on working for the disenfranched/poor of Mexico. Which no other airline, including the other three Mexican airlines have interest in. They have only moved some ops to AICM because the government has forced them to. So reviving Mexicana is AMLOs solution to generating business at AICM, and justifying its existence in the wake of cancelling a much better and more popular project, NAICM, simply because it came from PRI.I am guessing that after AMLO, or his Morena successor, AICM will go the way of Toluca, and Mexicana with it. I would be shocked if Mexicana ever filed for license to fly in the US
Everything you're saying is true RFNJ but wanted to make a small correction. I think when you say "AICM" you really mean "AIFA", AICM is the current old airport.
I wanna know what FAA/IATA regulations they need to get around by flying militsry-grade metal