Líneas Aéreas Azteca

Líneas Aéreas Azteca is an airline based in Mexico City, Mexico. It operates domestic scheduled services and international services to the USA. Its main base is Mexico City International Airport, with a hub at General Abelardo L. Rodríguez International Airport, Tijuana ^[1].

Operations of the airline were suspended by the government in March 2007 due for safety problems, and in October 2007 the Mexican airline asociation allowed it to restart operations.

History

The airline was established on May 9, 2000 and started operations on June 1, 2001 operating domestic services with Boeing 737 aircraft. It started up after TAESA closed down and some of the staff and assets were taken over ^[1].

Under the name Azteca Airlines, the airline was a member of the Airlines Reporting Corporation. Líneas Aéreas Azteca actively sought to expand international routes into the United States. In 2003, Azteca contributed a small amount of traffic through Ontario International Airport, California, constituting ~0.5% of passenger traffic in January and October.^{[citation needed]}

Acapulco Travel & Tours (Orange County, Acatravel.com) reported that as of January 20, 2006, Azteca Airlines S.A. de C.V. was a participating e-ticket carrier. This effort lead to a new layout of www.aazteca.com.mx to offer online ticketing.

During the first two months of 2007, the airline transported 113,592 passengers, or 2.3% of total passengers in Mexico. Routes operated by Azteca were covered by 13 other airlines.^[2]

Operations suspended in March 2007

Following weeks of speculation about the airlines' financial situation, on 26 March 2007, the Secretariat of Communications & Transport (SCT) issued a 90-day operations-desist claim that will immediately halt the operations of the airline in order for it to respond to its financial credit, personnel training and aircraft maintenance issues.^[3] The air operators certificate was suspended for safety reasons. An inspection carried out March 5-23, 2007 brought several deficiencies to light, including some in safety procedures and the periodic qualification of pilots, ground crew and maintenance personnel. The airline had 90 days to comply with regulations.^[4]

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) suspended Líneas Aéreas Azteca from participation in their worldwide Billing and Settlement Plan (BSP) operations on March 27, 2007, following the suspension of its operations by the Mexican civil aviation authorities.^[5]

The suspension left thousands of passengers with unusable tickets. Azteca is in debt to Mexico City's airport and to its airplane lessor. A lessor temporarily seized one of Azteca's planes in February 2007 in the United States. The suspension of flights affected up to 25,000 tickets. The airline flew to 19 Mexican destinations and Los Angeles, was apparently authorized to fly 50 routes. Five of the airline's nine aircraft were out of day-to-day service when the suspension was announced.^[6] One os Lineas Aereas Aztecas boeing 737-700 series was stuck in Ontario for about a year.The flight was 424 and it operated Tijuana-Guadalajara-Mexico

End of the operations

Líneas Aéreas Azteca, according to the Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil (DGAC) of the Secretariat of Communications and Transport, ceased operations on October 10, 2007, for not having a good financial statement, after the suspension on March 2007.

Destinations that formerly served

^{[citation needed]}

Mexico

• Acapulco
• Aguascalientes
• Cancún
• Chihuahua
• Ciudad Juárez
• Culiacán
• Guadalajara
• Hermosillo
• Mexico City
• Mexicali
• Monterrey
• Morelia
• Oaxaca
• Puebla
• Puerto Vallarta
• Tijuana
• Toluca
• Uruapan
• Zacatecas

United States

• California
  • Ontario
• Texas
  • El Paso

Laredo, TX

• Oakland, California
• New York (JFK)

Fleet

The Líneas Aéreas Azteca fleet consisted on the following aircraft: ^[1] :

• 3 Boeing 737-700
• 6 Boeing 737-300

References

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