The Mexican government promulgated this Thursday the creation of a commercial airline administered by the Army that will offer national, international and cargo flights.
The decree, based on a reform approved last April, was published in the Official Gazette of the Federation (DOF) and “authorizes the constitution of a company with majority state participation, called Mexican State Airlinegrouped to the sector of the Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena)”.
According to the publication of the Ministry of Finance in the DOF, this new airline will offer public services for national and international air transport of passengers, cargo, mail or a combination of these.
It will also provide services under the modality of tourist package or transfer, charter and air taxi.
Thus, it establishes that the Army will carry out “all actions necessary to promote, operate and provide the public service of regular national and international air transport of passengers, cargo, mail or a combination of theseon their own account or through public or private persons”.
The document further states that The social capital of the new airline will be variable and will be constituted of 1 million pesos (56,328 dollars), of which 990,000 pesos (55,764 dollars) will be contributed by the Sedena budget, and 10,000 pesos (563 dollars or 522 euros) by the National Army and Air Force Bank.
On April 29, with 64 votes in favor, one abstention and no votes against, in the absence of the opposition, the Senate approved that the Army continue with its plans to create the airline.
The air company would operate under the Mexicana de Aviación brand, the first airline to be founded in Mexico in 1921 and which went bankrupt in 2010.and would use the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA) as its base of operations, the flagship work of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for the Mexican capital.
Besides, the federal government also seeks to recover category 1 in aviation safety from the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States (FAA) which he lost in 2021.
Under this scheme, during the López Obrador Administration, the Army has obtained control of AIFA, other airports and the Mayan Train, the president’s tourism and transportation project for southeastern Mexico.
The creation of this airline occurs amid criticism of the growing power of the Armed Forces in the Government of López Obrador, who has given them tasks of public security, infrastructure construction, immigration control, and customs and airport administration.
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