President of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, confirmed that his government is considering the creation of an airline to be managed by the military company “Olmeca Maya Mexica” -which will also be in charge of the Mayan Train and several airports- and that this will include the use of the presidential airplane.
“It is true, yes, that’s where it came from (the hacking), I didn’t know. We are indeed working on that, there is a possibility of having a project to create an airline managed by the same company that will be in charge of the Mayan Train and the airports, the Felipe Angeles airport, and the Tulum airport, construction of which has already begun”.
” The company called Olmeca Maya Mexica will also operate the Chetumal airport, the Palenque airport, and possibly one or two more, which means the Mayan Train, the airports, and the airline are being considered. And yes, there are ten airplanes. I just saw the project, I saw it in Yucatan 15 days ago, they presented it to me”, he confirmed in a morning conference.
President said that a preliminary analysis indicated that this company is profitable, although there is still no final decision, and that they are also considering giving the presidential plane for its use.
“The economic viability analysis is being made and the presidential plane is being considered to be handed over to the company that will manage those ten planes, which are not going to be acquired, but rented; we are looking for the most convenient type of plane”.
“In the first analysis that was made, the company is said to be profitable, but we have not decided yet, we are going to keep discussing it. It is very likely that this new airline will be available next year. There are many places that cannot be reached by air, because they are not covered by the current airlines”, stated López Obrador.
Latinus revealed that the Secretariat of National Defense (Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional, Sedena) seeks to become a large tourism agency with hotel projects, parks, museums and an airline.
According to documents contained in Sedena’s e-mails and extracted by the “Guacamaya” hackers, the project was shared on August 27 internally with other military personnel by the person in charge of the commercial and services management of Grupo Aeroportuario, Ferroviario y de Servicios Auxiliares Olmeca, Maya and Mexica.
The proposal establishes the creation of Servicios Turísticos Itzamná and another company that seeks to shelter the new airline. These two new companies will be the seventh and eighth companies incorporated by the Army since President Andrés Manuel López Obrador officially took office as President of Mexico in December 2018.
For the Mexican state airline, the Sedena does not yet have a name, however, it plans for it to be a passenger and cargo air transport service with 10 leased aircraft, which will operate one hundred flight hours per month.
In addition, the project also considered using the presidential airplane José María Morelos y Pavón for commercial flights. This was rejected due to the fact that tickets would have a 40% higher cost to make it profitable.
Furthermore, the military recognizes that using the presidential plane to transport passengers requires a significant investment and represents a high risk of poor results.
According to them, the presidential plane has only 80 passenger seats, compared to the 250 seats available on aircraft of the same type.
In a cost-benefit study of the commercial use of the Boeing 787-8 conducted in July 2022 and also found among the leaked emails, the Secretariat of National Defense (Secretaria de la Defensa Nacional) gives as an example an AIFA flight to Guadalajara.
The cost of such an air ticket normally ranges from 1,300 to 2,000 Mexican pesos, but the presidential plane would have to cost more than 6,000 Mexican pesos.
To create the airline, the Sedena has a deadline of December 31st, 2023, although Mexican law establishes that 16 months are necessary for the creation of a new airline.
References:
AMLO confirma que el Ejército tendrá una aerolínea con 10 aeronaves rentadas e insiste en integrar al avión presidencial. (2022, octubre 4). Latin US. https://latinus.us/2022/10/04/amlo-confirma-ejercito-tendra-aerolinea-10-aeronaves-rentadas-insiste-integrar-avion-presidencial/
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