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Southwest Airlines is willing to expand inspections for its older Boeing 737 aircraft but sees no reason for concern a week after one of its jets made an emergency landing with a hole in its fuselage, the discount carrier’s chief executive officer said on Friday.

An older-model Southwest Airlines 737-300 was forced to make an emergency landing in Arizona on April 1 when a 5-foot (1.52 meters) tear opened up in its fuselage 20 minutes after takeoff.

The incident prompted Southwest, the largest domestic airline by passengers flown, to ground planes and cancel hundreds of flights over the weekend so it could inspect more than 70 of its older model 737-300s.

source: reuters.com

The latest plan to put troubled airline Mexicana back in the skies has flopped after a tiny boutique investment firm interested in buying the company failed to inject the money needed to restart operations.

A business plan from relatively unknown PC Capital was chosen by a judge-appointed mediator in November as the best option to relaunch debt-ridden Mexicana. The pick was backed by Mexico’s communications and labor ministries.

Mexicana de Aviacion was one of Mexico’s two major airlines. It ceased operations in late August, swamped by its financial liabilities, grounding travelers in Mexico and abroad and leaving thousands of ground workers, pilots and flight attendants with no jobs. Its affiliated carriers, Link and Click, also stopped flying.

source: Reuters

On Aug. 3 Mexicana announced that it was seeking bankruptcy protection from creditors in Mexico and the U.S. Mexicana, along with Aeromexico, is one of the two carriers with nationwide reach, and Mexico’s largest by passengers. In addition, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on July 30 announced that Mexico was not complying with international safety standards.

The bankruptcy marked the beginning of a speedy meltdown that may end with the collapse of Mexicana in the coming weeks. The airline has suspended ticket sales and canceled numerous flights, mainly to international destinations in the Western Hemisphere and Europe. It has been forced to pay in advance for services, and faced problems such as refusals to refuel its planes.

source: Forbes

Debt-ridden airline Mexicana de Aviacion needs a cash injection of at least $100 million to keep flying, the company’s chief executive said on Tuesday.

Time is ticking for troubled Mexicana, which has ceased flying more than a dozen international routes and stopped selling tickets after requesting creditor protection last week under Mexico’s insolvency law, or ‘concurso mercantil’. The company has yet to be declared bankrupt.

Mexico’s air industry was hit hard in 2009 by a severe economic downturn in Mexico and an outbreak of the H1N1 flu that deterred travelers for months.

source: Reuters