Mexican Interjet would resume flights in 2022 with Czech planes

The Mexican airline Interjet, which stopped flying almost a year ago amid serious financial problems, plans to resume commercial operations in 2022 with a fleet of 10 Airbus SE A320s and possibly 10 Czech-made Let L-410s.

Ivan Romo, in charge of restructuring Interjet after the departure of Argoss Partners in the middle of the year, told Bloomberg that the company has talks with four potential investors, three of them from the United States.

“The financing scheme sought in this phase is a very complicated scheme, one of distressed investing“, said Romo, an attorney and managing partner of the firm SOELI Consulting.

“We are envisioning three investment tranches: a first tranche from zero to US $ 50 million —it is basically reoperative financing to be able to finish the restructuring issue and the first start-up for next year. A second tranche from zero to US $ 300 million, and a third tranche from US $ 300 million to US $ 400 million over a period of five to 10 years”He added.

Interjet has a bulky debt of close to 40,000 million pesos (US $ 1,800 million) that they inherited from the previous administration, acknowledged the new general director of the airline, Luis Federico Bertrand. The main debts are with the Tax Administration Service (SAT), with ASA Combustibles and aircraft lessors.

The company’s tax liabilities could reach up to $ 700 million in back taxes. “80% of that credit is being reviewed in a validation process with the authority. We do not have a specific confirmation of how much”, He clarified Romo.

The pandemic hit the travel industry hard and hit Interjet, which had debts and problems with creditors prior to the emergence of COVID-19. Interjet shareholders approved to join the commercial bankruptcy process in Mexico in April of this year.

Bertrand envisions the rebirth of Interjet in three units: one that carries the large-scale commercial routes that the airline used to serve, another that handles neglected short regional routes – as was the case with flights to Mulejé, Guerrero Negro and Loreto in Baja California decades ago – and another that focuses exclusively on cargo.

The executive would seek to add aircraft Turbolet for regional routes and signing new leases for Airbus aircraft. The Czech-made jets are reminiscent of Interjet’s decision in 2013 to buy a fleet of Russian Sukhoi Superjets that brought serious headaches to properly maintain them. Sukhoi had no workshops in America and had Interjet as its only customer in the region.

The same would happen with the plane Turbolet short-range twin-engine made by Czech manufacturer Aircraft Industries as But Bertrand claimed that they would not have the same problems since the “engines are from General Electric and avionics from Honeywell”. The airline would also consider airplanes Cessna Grand Caravan O Pilatus Aircraft Ltd. for short routes, said the executive.

Another of Interjet’s great pending is to solve the labor situation with its employees, who have been on strike for months and have not received payment. During its golden days, the airline had a fleet of 87 aircraft served by 5,600 employees. For its rebirth, Bertrand estimates starting with about 600 to 700 employees.

Local rivals like Controller Vuela Cía de Aviación SAB, known as Volaris, Grupo Aeroméxico SAB and Grupo Viva Aerobus SA have taken advantage of the gap that Interjet left last year. All of them increased and added capacity as the market recovered from the worst months of the pandemic.

InterjetFounded in 2005 by the heirs of a Mexican president, it debuted as a low-cost airline in a market dominated by much larger companies. Miguel Aleman Magnani, one of the founders, fled to France in July as Mexico sought to arrest him in connection with a tax fraud case.

Businessman Alejandro del Valle took a 90% stake in Interjet in 2020. He and other investors said they would capitalize the airline with $ 150 million. Del Valle was detained by authorities in September on fraud charges related to his participation as co-signer of the debt of the non-bank lender Crédito Real.

“The company is independent of its owner“, said Gonzalo Alarcon, one of Interjet’s lawyers, during the interview. “It is still the largest shareholder of the company, but we are independent of it”.