Mexicana Ceases Operations; Cruise Impact Unknown

A Mexicana Airbus A320 lands at Vancouver 

International Airport during better days.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia

Effective as of 12:01am this morning, Mexico's first airline suspended all operations indefinitely following a spate of financial difficulties that have left the airline unable to operate.

Mexicana Airlines had filed for bankruptcy protection earlier this month, and stated it needed a cash injection of $100 million dollars in order to maintain basic operations at Groupo Mexico, which controls Mexicana and regional airlines MexicanaClick and MexicanaLink - all three of which have been grounded.

The airline was hit particularly hard by the swine flu outbreak last year that saw travel to Mexican destinations drop sharply, while at the same time grappling with rising fuel costs.  The airline had recently become a member of the Oneworld Alliance, of which American Airlines is a notable partner.

While the airline isn't officially 'dead', the chances of flights resuming is slim to none.  Once aircraft aren't operational, any income generated stops as well.  Creditors and lessors usually move quickly to repossess aircraft that can be used profitably for other companies.

Though the majority of North American cruisers won't likely be impacted by Mexicana's demise, guests due to travel to South America this winter might want to double-check their tickets.  Mexicana operated a number of flights from North America to not only Mexico, but many parts of Latin America and South America, and was a codeshare partner with American Airlines.  Meaning if you booked through another airline, but your flight is listed as a codeshare with Mexicana, you should contact your travel agent or booking airline.

At the moment, it's not immediately clear what will happen to those passengers who had flights booked with Mexicana.  Affected passengers would be wise to contact either their travel agent, or, failing that, their credit card company in order to have any charges reversed. 

Sadly, it is the demise of yet another airline that should give frequent cruisers pause; for all the innovations the cruise industry has seen in the past twenty years, the majority of passengers are still reliant upon air travel to reach their ports of embarkation.  

An industry which has seen an increasingly volatile decade.