Through a resolution published this Thursday in the Official Gazette of the Federation, the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit of Mexico authorized the establishment of the «Aerolínea del Estado Mexicano», S. A. de C. V., the new majority state-owned company that has been one of the latest «flags» of the presidency of Manuel Lopez Obrador.
The reasons given explain that the purpose of the state airline is «to improve the quality and coverage of air services, as well as to boost connectivity in the market where there is demand, which will represent an engine of growth, development and competitiveness at the national and international level».
They also assure that this «will strengthen the capture of foreign currency and national and foreign investments, through the establishment of a Parastatal Entity that promotes, exploits and provides the public service of regular national and international air transport of passengers, cargo, mail or a combination of these, on its own or through public or private individuals».
The company will also be able to operate under charter or air taxi mode, either for itself or for third parties.
Article 5° of the resolution indicates that «the share capital of the Majority State-Owned Company will be variable» and that «the variable part of the share capital will be unlimited, and the minimum part, with no right to withdraw, will be $1,000,000.00 (one million pesos 00/100 M.N.) and will be represented by 100 (one hundred) nominative shares, whose nominal value will be $10,000.00 (ten thousand pesos 00/100 M.N.) each».
In this way, the initial amount of the state participation is set at MEX 1,000,000 (~ USD 56,000), which will be divided into $990,000.00 of budgetary origin to the Secretariat of National Defense and $10,000.00 to the National Bank of the Army, Air Force and Navy, S.N.C., as a minority shareholder.
The creation of a state airline in Mexico has been highly criticized by the air commercial industry, which believes that the national market is well served by a traditional airline like Aeromexico and two low-cost ones like Volaris and Viva Aerobus, as well as other small regional companies, which managed to fill the gap left by Interjet in 2020. There are sectors that were underserved when Aeromar ceased operations earlier this year.
In December, in an interview that took place during the Media Day that took place in Geneva and in which Aviacionline participated, Willie Walsh, Director General of IATA, had said that in his experience, in general, state-owned airlines are not very well managed and there are not many successful cases of efficient management, so he did not see this action by the Mexican government as something positive.
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constitution mexican state airline 18may2023
