Source: Xinhua Author: 06/10/2009
Subject Concerned: Government Airlines
Mexico's airlines are all in bad shape, a senior official from the nation's Communications and Transportation Ministry (SCT) said on June 10.
The airlines have accumulated debts of 3.7 billion pesos (US$272 million), which is more than the fund the ministry has allocated for their bailout, Humberto Trevino Landois, a junior minister at the SCT told a meeting called by the Chamber of Deputies' Tourism Commission.
"Until the airline sector is restructured, no financial support will be given," he said. "There is an excess of supply in the industry that needs to be restructured."
Mexico's airlines have racked up aircraft fuel debts worth nearly 1.6 billion pesos (US$118 million) this year alone, Trevino said. They also owe a further 1.25 billion pesos (US$92 million) for airspace rights. In addition, the firms had lost a total of 5.7 billion pesos (US$419 million) in 2007 and 9.1 billion pesos (US$669 million) in 2008.