AMLO’s airline to take off with $4 billion, 10 jets

Mexico’s new military-run airline will get a $4 billion investment and plans to start operations with Boeing Co. jets, ramping up a plan by President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador to bolster the defense department’s business projects.

The airline has initially leased 10 of Boeing’s 737-800 planes, said Defense Minister Luis Cresencio Sandoval, with three deliveries scheduled for late September and the rest for late October. Ticket sales could start as soon as September, he said. 

The president’s plans to start a military airline were approved by congress earlier this year as part of an aerospace reform, which could provide additional traffic to the airports built in Santa Lucia, Mexico State and Tulum, Quintana Roo during his administration. The 20 proposed routes include resort destinations such as Cancun and Los Cabos and major cities such as Monterrey and Guadalajara. 

The new company will be named Mexicana, after the government struck a deal with workers from the defunct Mexicana de Aviacion airline to purchase the brand. The date of the first flight has not yet been determined, he said.

The carrier will only serve domestic flights at the start. Airlines in Mexico have been banned from adding new routes or frequencies to the US since May 2021, when the Federal Aviation Authority lowered the country’s safety rating to Category 2. A return to Category 1 is expected in the coming months.

The military is receiving advice from Boeing and “other companies on tourism and the sale of tickets,” said Sandoval at a press briefing Thursday. “We’re still working on it,” he said.