Mexico planning army-run national airline Mexicana

Aeromexico: Mexican government has plans to launch state-run rival operated by the armed forces. Photo / Jose Pablo Domingo, Unsplash

Mexico's president said Tuesday his government is analysing the creation of a state-owned, army-run airline that would fly 10 leased airplanes as well as the former presidential jet.

The unusual plan would further boost the army's increasing economic role in Mexico.

The proposal was mentioned in a trove of army documents obtained by the Guacamaya hackers group and on Tuesday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador confirmed the plan was under consideration.

López Obrador has already placed the armed forces in charge of building trains and airports, running federal law enforcement and a host of other tasks ranging from overseeing vaccine distribution to growing trees for forestry programs.

"An airline is being considered," the president said, adding it could be named "Mexicana" after a defunct, partly state-owned carrier that went into bankruptcy in 2010, or "something to do with Mexico."

"The economics of it, the feasibility, is being analyzed," he added. "It is very likely that the new airline will be ready next year."

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador at Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City. Photo / Marco Ugarte, AP

The idea combines López Obrador's love of state-owned companies — he has criticized decisions by previous administrations to sell off once-extensive government companies — and his near-total reliance on the armed forces, which he views as honest and a bulwark against corruption.

Already, a military-led company operates the new Felipe Angeles airport the president ordered built to serve Mexico City, and is constructing a new airport at the Caribbean coast resort of Tulum.

Apart from boosting traffic at the currently underused Felipe Angeles terminal, the army-run airline would apparently provide flights to feed passengers into the Maya Train tourism project.

The army is also constructing that project, which will connect beach resorts and archaeological sites around the Yucatan Peninsula.

The army — which has no experience running commercial flights — would create a subsidiary in charge of providing air service to tourist resorts served by the Maya Train.

"This company, which is named Olmeca-Maya-Mexica, is going to operate the airport in Chetumal, the airport in Palenque," López Obrador said, referring to other cities on the train route.

- Associated Press