Justice blocks the airline of the Mexican Army

The dream of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to launch an airline in the hands of the Army is in suspense.

The disbursement of 816 million pesos by the federal government to buy the brand and a package of assets from the ex-employees of the extinct Mexican airline has not yet been able to crystallize due to an amparo lawsuit that has been reactivated in recent weeks for part of a group of 200 former flight attendants who are now demanding the payment of some 400 million pesos in debts after the bankruptcy of the airline.

Captain José Alonso Torres, Press Secretary of the Aviation Pilots Union Association (Aspa) has reported that, although the Government and the main unions of pilots, flight attendants and ground personnel affected by this bankruptcy, formalized in 2014,

The union spokesman explains that, after the news was released that the Government of López Obrador is going to acquire the assets, the lawyers of this group of former workers reactivated their legal fight to enforce an award that they obtained in their favor years ago.

“They protect themselves, they are the only ones who are, let's say, dissidents.

They are the ones who protect themselves and say: 'since they didn't take us into account, they have to pay us in cash,' says Alonso Torres.

Aspa's spokesman details that these 200 former Mexicana employees were disregarded because over the years they left the fight in the courts.

The 200 former workers of the disgraced airline demand that of the 816 million pesos that the federal Administration will disburse, they be paid 400 million pesos for the debts that the company did not cover since it declared bankruptcy.

However, the Aspa spokesman assures that this request is unfeasible because the pilots are even owed more and, in that case, they should also demand a higher amount and with this they would affect the rest of those affected, such as the ground personnel.

"The pilots are going to be paid more or less 10% of what really corresponds to them," says Alonso Torres.

It is contemplated that each former worker affected will be distributed a proportional amount of the bag paid by the Government, according to their last salary and their years of seniority.

Although the union leader is not afraid that the federal government's purchase process will collapse due to this legal obstacle and the brand will again be seized with the assets at risk of depreciation, he does acknowledge that there will be a delay of at least two months in the transaction.

“What is the worst case scenario?

That a judge determine that this group of dissident workers must also be included in the distribution of the money and it may happen that even so they insist that they are owed 400 million pesos, but I suppose that the Ministry of Labor will enter there to negotiate and make them see that it is not possible.

They are not right to want all that money, ”he adds.

If the former workers of Mexicana have learned anything in these more than 12 years of labor struggle, it is to gather patience.

Since 2010, when the Mexican airline filed for bankruptcy, the more than 8,000 affected have patiently waited for the lost wages, settlements and settlements that the company left behind to be covered.

With the recent interest of President López Obrador to get the name 'Mexicana' for his own aeronautical project, those affected agreed to sell what little was left of the company in order to receive some type of financial compensation.

Although the union also offered the Executive the sale of the other brands of the company such as Mexicana Click and Mexicana Link, the federal Administration was only interested in the flagship name of the airline.

Mexicana de Aviación suspended its flights in 2010, and entered a commercial bankruptcy to get new investors and continue its operations.

The airline, which began in 1921, was the third oldest in the world, after the Dutch KLM (founded in 1919) and the Colombian airline, Avianca (1919), which gives the name even more symbolism.

Some 70 families camped at the capital's airport until they were evicted in September during a Navy and Army operation from an airport cafeteria, a place that belonged to the now-defunct airline and which served as counters before it disappeared a few years ago. 12 years.

President López Obrador seeks that before the end of this year, the commercial fleet of his airline under the Mexican brand is sailing the skies.

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