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The new state airline would be in charge of the military company ‘Olmeca-Maya-Mexica’.
Sedena’s plans to launch a commercial airline are still a project under analysis.
The objective is to cover the deficit of national flights after the disappearance of Mexicana and the bankruptcy of Interjet.
With the confirmation of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) that Sedena does consider launching its own airline commercial makes the massive hacking of the Ministry of National Defense raise an analysis on the market impact that this movement would imply at the national level.
And it is that, according to the leak of “Guacamaya Leaks”, this new parastatal business scheme would be in charge of the military company ‘Olmec-Maya-Mexica’ and, initially, it would operate national routes with 10 rented ships.
“The economic feasibility analysis is being done and the presidential plane is contemplated, handing it over to the company that is going to handle these 10 planes that are not going to be acquired, but rather rented. They are looking for what type of plane is the most convenient, with which companies, all this because there needs to be more service”, the President specified.
The new one Mexican State Airlinewhich would operate at the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), takes its name as a symbolic reference to the extinct Mexicana de Aviación and seeks to cover the reduction of air routes in national territory.
However, what has been revealed dictates that This annual operation will cost between one thousand and one thousand 800 million pesoswith a fleet of 10 leased planes and, although it was planned to include the presidential plane, it is known that it was discarded because it was considered a “high risk of obtaining poor results”, since each hour of flight would cost 500 thousand pesos; now, the plane that was raffled and offered on multiple occasions, would become part of the flora of the Mexican Air Force, where it could be put to military use.
National competition for the Sedena airline
Although the type of aircraft to be used by the new Mexican State Airline, For aerial feasibility, we speak of models such as Airbus A320, Boeing 737 or ATR-72.
Looking at it, it is known that an airplane Airbus A320 it has 146 seats, Boeing 737has 189 places, and the ATR-72 moves 74 people, so if any of these three models is chosen, the Sedena airline would have the capacity to transport, in the first case, 1,460 travelers; in the second, at 1,890; and in the third only to 740.
Contrasting these figures, Sedena’s direct commercial competition would be brands such as Interjet, Viva Aerobus, Volaris and Aeroméxico, who register on their websites a much higher rate in the airport market:
- Interjet: 85 planes and 13 thousand 706 seats available7 – Airbus 321neo: 220 seats each
6 – Airbus A321: 244 seats each
3 – Airbus A320neo: 180 seats each
47 – Airbus A320: 168 seats each
22 – Superjet 100: 103 seats each
- Viva Arobus: 65 aircraft and 12,572 seats available14- Airbus 321neo: 220 seats each9 – Airbus A321: 244 seats each
twenty – Airbus 320neo: 180 seats each
22 – Airbus A320: 168 seats each
- Volaris: 109 aircraft and 19,860 seats available4 – Airbus A319: 156 seats each
84 – Airbus A320: 168 seats each
twenty-one – Airbus A321: 244 seats each
- Aeroméxico: 103 aircraft and 18 thousand 988 available seats1- Boeing 737-700: 124 seats each36 – Boeing 737-800: 186 seats each
32 – Boeing 737-8MAX: 166 seats each
12 – Boeing 737-9MAX: 181 seats each
8 – Boeing 787-8: 243 seats each
10 – Boeing 787-9: 274 seats each
In perspective, the airport market can also be measured by the profitability of AIFA, which depended closely on the direct relationship with passenger demand and which today can become the official and sole headquarters of the Airline of the Mexican State.
According to projections made with the help of ADP Ingénierie (a subsidiary of the Paris Airports Group), in its first year of operations it could have reached 2.4 million passengers, while for the second it was estimated at 5 million.
Nevertheless, Isidoro Pastor, general director of AIFA, shared during the inaugural flight of the Dominican airline Arajet that currently the airport has received only 300 thousand users, estimating that traffic in 2022 will close at approximately 600 or 700 thousand passengers. Meanwhile, for the closing of operations, in March 2023, the generation of more than one million passengers is estimated.
In contrast, Airports Council International, points out that the airlines with the highest traffic such as Dallas-Fort Worth and Hartsfield Jackson in Atlanta register between 62 and 75 million people.
Likewise, the routes that the new Sedena airline could cover have not yet been defined, but data from the Ministry of Communications and Transportation for 2022 could define the potential market to which one could aspire.
This considering that the AIFA operates with Aeroméxico, Volaris and Viva Aerobus to destinations such as oaxaca; AcapulcoWarrior; MeridaYucatan; MontereyNew Lion; Guadalajara Y Vallarta PortJalisco; TijuanaLower California; Queretaro; and CancunQuintana Roo.
Main national air routes in Mexico between January and March 2022, by number of passengers transported(in thousands)
However, despite all the economic predictions that this market can offer the parastatal, it remains to wait for the progress of the airport project, since Sedena would be legally prevented from operating an airport and an airline at the same time, so it would have to foresee from the head of the federal government a resolution with modifications to the Law or a modification of the airport regulations.
Now read:
Guacamaya leaks: implications of the new SEDENA airline
AIFA, key starting point for the return of Interjet
The recovery of air traffic in Latin America will be brutal: Airbus