The Mexican government is floating a proposal to merge the
country’s two major airlines, Aeromexico and Mexicana, as part of a
plan to sell a stake in the combined company to investors by next
year, airline officials confirmed.
Aeromexico and Mexicana were placed under the control of Cintra,
the state holding company that owns both airlines, in 1995 when
they faced financial difficulty in the wake of Mexico’s 1994
financial crisis. In October 2000, the Federal Competition
Commission recommended the breakup of Cintra, saying competition
would lower the price of air transportation in Mexico and boost
tourism.
Aeromexico and Mexicana control nearly 80 percent of the Mexican
domestic air market. If combined, the resulting entity would be
Latin America’s biggest carrier. Mexico’s Federal Competition
Committee, the country’s antitrust agency, must approve the
proposal.
