Mexicana has a new head administrator to pilot the airline through bankruptcy, but Tenedora K — the new investment group that bought 95% of the carrier — says it’s still up in the air whether the company will survive very long.
Tenedora K this week named Alejandro Rodriguez, a former bank director, as the airline’s new chief administrator, saying he would be responsible for Mexicana’s "possible rescue."
The investment group also said that a more thorough review of the airline’s financial records revealed that the difference in labor costs between Mexicana and U.S. airlines is greater than investors had realized before they gained control of the company Aug. 20.
Mexicana had cited high labor costs as one of the reasons for its bankruptcy filing in the U.S. and Mexico earlier this month.
Tenedora K and Rodriguez said the pilots, which now own 5% of the carrier, had made a "historic" agreement to help make the acquisition possible. But the flight attendants are making demands that would make Mexicana’s survival "inviable."
Some Mexican and international media reports say the airline is considering laying off all of its flight attendants.
But many analysts wonder what Mexicana will be like if — and after — it survives.
"The carrier is a shell of its former self, apparently providing only domestic regional services through its local subsidiaries," said the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation.
The center reported, "The carrier’s website is only advertising domestic services for sale, along with two international operations from Mexico City, to Havana and to Guatemala, with only Havana actually offering ticketing."