Mexico City.- It will be difficult for Interjet to reverse the bankruptcy declaration ordered by a federal judge, specialists in the aviation sector considered.
Rogelio Rodríguez, an aviation specialist, explained that it is difficult for the judge to admit or grant an injunction to the airline, because the company did not present a coherent financial restructuring plan or a payment agreement to creditors.
Interjet stopped operating in December 2020 and currently has 5,000 employees on strike hoping that with the auction of the assets ordered by the federal judge they can liquidate a part of what is owed to them.
“It is not enough for the judge that the airline company come and tell it that it is going to pay its creditors, but that it must present reliable evidence of payment.
“The airline in the commercial bankruptcy already had deadlines to pay and take away and it did not, how is it that it will now pay what it owes?” Rodríguez explained.
The bankruptcy process and auction of Interjet’s assets can take a long process, he added, since the experience in this area in Mexico is not encouraging.
“For example, Mexicana de Aviación and Aviacsa do not have a final bankruptcy sentence. The practice in these processes is very long, this will take at least five years in a conservative scenario,” he said.
Carlos Torres, a specialist in the air sector, agreed that the airline will hardly be able to reverse the judge’s decision, given that for the judge to have made his decision it is because an agreement was not reached with the creditors.
He pointed out that something positive about this process is that the former workers of the airline will be able to recover part of the assets, something that did not happen with the employees of Mexicana de Aviación.
“However, it will be necessary to see which assets can be auctioned off because possibly they are not all and that has to do with the fact that some could have been compromised prior to this decision,” he said.
Julio Zugasti, a senior associate at the Hogan Lovells law firm, said that the auction of Interjet’s assets will depend on the speed given by the court.
However, he explained that the sale of the goods sometimes does not become as fast as expected, since appraisals have to be carried out to determine the price of each one and carry out auctions or mechanisms that help raise the greatest amount of money possible.
The specialist indicated that the Russian Suhkoi planes owned by Interjet could represent an obstacle to the auction of goods, since they are not so well known commercially and could hardly be of interest to another airline.
“Unfortunately, it is a process that could take a long time, as in the case of Mexicana de Aviación.
“Interjet, for example, was one of the few air operators that had this type of aircraft in its fleet,” he said.
