If an airline in Mexico has been affected by the health emergency, it has been Interjet. And it is that although the problems that the airline faces were not derived precisely from what happened around the coronavirus, the truth is that the situation made the conditions that the brand had already dragged for some years more evident.
Now the problems for the firm remain and as of this Friday Interjet is officially on strike due to unpaid payments and benefits to its workers.
The facts
After a vote carried out early this Friday, Section 15 of the Confederación de Trabajadores de México (CTM) unionized employees of the company reached the conclusion of starting today a strike process with demonstrations in different points of the country.
According to some specialized media, in this way, starting at noon on Friday, Interjet workers in Mexico City will hold demonstrations in front of the company’s corporate headquarters, in the airline’s hangar as well as in front of the counters that it has at the International Airport of Mexico City.
And it is that Interjet has a debt with its employees of six fortnights, in addition to the lack of compliance in their benefits.
Added to this are tax defaults that resulted in a cash intervention by the Tax Administration Service (SAT).
Yesterday afternoon, the SAT indicated in a press release that this measure did not intervene with the company’s ability to comply with its labor obligations, thus ABC Aerolineas SA. of CV. (Interjet operator) had capital, they could settle accounts with their employees and the tax administrator.
At the end of last year, section 15 made up of airline workers held a series of negotiation meetings with Interjet representatives in front of the Federal Board of Conciliation and Arbitration; however, the union confirmed that no agreement was reached.
Consumers affected
In the midst of this labor dispute, consumers have also been affected. On various occasions during 2020, Interjet canceled all its flights for whole days, which ended up affecting thousands of passengers who have not received refunds for the price of their tickets or the rescheduling of them. Since January, Interjet has stopped selling tickets from its website.
With this in mind, debts for Interjet remain on the rise. And it is that in addition to having to cover their defaults in the face of their employees, according to what is stipulated by the Civil Aviation Law, the airline is obliged to cover compensation to the affected passengers that must be greater than 25 percent of the price of the ticket or of the unrealized part of the trip.
Said compensation should be paid within a period of no more than 10 days after the claim by the client.
For many consumers this has not happened, with which they have filed a collective complaint assisted by the Federal Consumer Protection Agency (Profeco), to demand their rights.
Interjet about to disappear?
The sum of all these factors has put Interjet in a particularly difficult situation, where many specialists predict its imminent disappearance.
The data comes from the consulting firm Ishka Global, a firm that, among other conculisoons, places Aeroméxico and Interjet on the list of the airlines most exposed to the Covid-19 crisis and that, therefore, is at greater risk of disappearing.
This aforementioned study, which considers data collected up to August 10, considers the financial situation of each company, future business prospects and aid already received or that is on the way, among other aspects.
With this in mind, the analysis groups the world’s airlines into new groups based on the risk levels of each one of them, where 9 is the group with the highest risk while one responds to those with the highest possibility of get out of crisis. In this way, the marks are as follows:
Group nine: Air Europa, Aeromexico, Avianca, GoAir, Interjet, Lion Air Group, Pal, Spice Jet, Sriwijaya Air, Virgin Atlantic, Air Asia and South African Airways. Group eight: Norwegian, American Airlines, Gol, Thai, Virgin Australia, Hainan, Tianjin, Pia, T’way Airlines, Kenya Airways, Ural Airlines, Volaris, Latam, S7, Sas, Air India, Icelandair and El Al Israel Airlines. Group seven: Aeroflot, FlyDubai, Tap, Garuda, Malaysia Airlines, Rossiya, Asiana, Korean Air, Cathay Pacific. Group six: Air Transat, Vietjet, Smartlynx, Sky, Grupo Viva, Viva Aerobus, Jetsmart and Westjet. Group five: Jet2, Allegiant, Azul, Frontier, Hawaiian, Jet2, SkyWest, Sun Country, United Airlines, Bamboo, Flynas, Sun Express, Aegean, Spirit Airlines, and Delta. Group four: Air China, Air France-KLM, Air Baltic, China Eastern, China Southern, Ethiopian, Etihad, Qatar Airways, Turkish Airlines, Tui Group, Transavia, Vietnam Airlines, Pobeda, Royal Air Maroc, Sichuan Airlines, Air Macau, Gulf Air and Royal Jordanian. Group three: Air Canada, Cebu Pacific, IndiGo, Pegasus, Ryanair and WizzAir. Group two: Alaska Airlines, Qantas, Southwest, Eva Airways, Jetblue, International Airlines Group (IAG), Easyjet, All Nippon Airways, and Japan Airlines. Group One: Air New Zealand, Emirates, Finnair, Lufthansa, Saudia, Singapore Airlines and China Airlines. Source: www.explica.co
