Summary
- Mexicana de Aviación has returned to the skies after 13 years, this time under the ownership of Mexico’s National Defense Secretariat.
- MexicanaLink, a subsidiary of the unique Mexicana de Aviación, has also made a comeback as a regional carrier now named Link Conexión Aérea.
- The brand new regional carrier, Link Conexión Aérea, is currently operating with a fleet of two wet-leased Embraer E145 aircraft.
On Tuesday, Mexicana de Aviación returned to the skies after 13 years grounded following the bankruptcy of the primary iteration of this historic company. This second iteration, owned and managed by Mexico’s National Defense Secretariat, operates from the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (NLU) with a fleet of military Boeing 737-800s. Little known was the undeniable fact that a second airline launched operations on Tuesday, Mexicana’s regional branch, Link Conexión Aérea, an organization employing wet-leased Embraer E145 aircraft.
The origins of Link Conexión Aérea
The Mexicana de Aviación brand was not the just one to be revived this December. MexicanaLink also made an unexpected comeback. MexicanaLink was a subsidiary of the unique Mexicana de Aviación, based in Guadalajara International Airport, and dealing as a feeder for the larger company, operating on thin domestic routes. This regional carrier operated between March 2009 and August 2010, when the entire company ceased operations. It had a fleet of Bombardier CRJ-200 aircraft.
On the time, a 3rd brand, MexicanaClick, operated as a low-cost brand, competing with the then-up-and-coming Volaris, Viva Aerobus, and Interjet. MexicanaClick has not been linked to a 2023 revival.
Now, the brands Mexicana de Aviación and MexicanaLink have been brought back in a project heralded by the country’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. These two brands are getting used on a brand new airline owned and managed by the country’s army.
What can we expect from Link Conexión Aérea?
The brand new Link Conexión Aérea is working flights with a fleet of two Embraer E145 aircraft wet-leased from the Mexican regional carrier Transportes Aéreos Regionales (TAR Aerolíneas).
Link Conexión Aérea can be based on the Felipe Ángeles International Airport. From there, it operated its first flight on Tuesday, serving Ciudad Victoria International Airport (CVM). It employed an E145 registration XA-AFH, patched with Mexicana’s livery on top of TAR Aerolíneas livery (as might be seen in the photographs below).
The brand new regional carrier is about to operate flights to 6 destinations across the country. In accordance with the corporate’s website, it’ll fly to Ciudad Victoria, Guadalajara (GDL), Ixtapa Zihuatanejo (ZIH), Acapulco (ACA), Villahermosa (VSA) and Palenque (PQM). Meanwhile, the larger Mexicana de Aviación will serve eight destinations: Tijuana (TIJ), Mazatlán (MZT), Puerto Vallarta (PVR), Monterrey (MTY), Campeche (CPE), Mérida (MID), Tulum (TQO), and Chetumal (CTM). Here’s a map of the airline’s destinations:
Photo: Mexicana de Aviación.
The airline’s business model stays questionable, with experts claiming the brand new Mexicana de Aviación is burning money on each flight by offering low fares that don’t even cover fuel expenses. In accordance with reports within the Mexican newspaper El Financiero, the brand new company wouldn’t be profitable until 2029 and is expecting to lose about $136 million in that span, plus one other $294 million additional, employed to launch the brand new State carrier.
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