Mexicana Airlines Files for Bankruptcy

The biggest news this week in the Mexican business world is Mexicana airlines filing for bankruptcy.   Mexicana has stated that this should not affect currently scheduled flights, but Several flights to the US have already been cancelled including 4 daily flights between Mexico City and Los Angeles. 

The decision to file for bankruptcy comes after the unions failed to agree to the new cost-saving measures that Mexicana had proposed.  Mexicana also had debts which exceeded $1 billion USD, due in part to the drop in tourism last year caused by the swine flu. 

According to Mexicana's president the average salary of a Mexicana pilot is around $220,000 USD/year.  The average salary for a flight attendant is around $53,000 USD/year.  These are considered very, very good salaries in Mexico.  Just to give you an idea, the average minimum wage per day in Mexico is around $4.50 USD/day!!!

Mexicana has two affiliate carriers which will not be affected by the bankruptcy - MexicanaLink and MexicanaClick. 

It will be interesting to see how other carriers step in and handle the passengers who use to travel exclusively on Mexicana.