to give us the plane

One of the strategies that implies the greatest propensity towards certain financial failure is the enlargement of the non-essential functions of a state, and specifically obesity in its business activity through the administration and operation of companies that operate with red numbers. This is a story already seen; Throughout the 20th century, the Mexican state gradually increased its ownership of a number of companies that, improbably, reached a historic maximum of around 1,200 in the times of President José López Portillo. The reasons for the acquisition and consequent administration of this extensive business catalog did not obey a rational justification and most of the cases involved reasons of state for the maintenance and satisfaction of electoral portfolios that union or union groups held at such times.

But, despite the perniciousness that this irrationality meant for the economy as a whole, Mexico is taking that dangerous leap into the past by acquiring Mexicana de Aviación, a company that since 2010 saw its last flight take off and that since 2014 was judicially declared bankrupt. From the formal acquisition of the company’s brand and assets, the Mexican state will not only disburse 817 million pesos from the public budget, but will have placed a shackle that implies raising said company with resources until making it viable in your operation. The foregoing also implies dealing with the legal problems that the company has been dragging, which came to represent close to 9,000 million pesos in lawsuits and claims, mostly electoral.

But unlike those early 80’s, currently the clientele to be satisfied are the military who, by leaps and bounds, have become the greatest beneficiaries of a state policy that appeals to the creation of well-being for the most disadvantaged but that , you are surely digging a pit from which it is difficult to escape.

In the midst of a complicated economic scenario, it would be thought unlikely to shoot yourself in the foot by acquiring greater obligations. Likewise, the argument of making the nascent airline profitable, by allocating its flights to routes that current aviation companies do not cover, is absurd; If they are not covered, it is because they are not profitable or demanded by the user public. In addition, the negative vortex left by the loss of category 1 in Mexico’s air safety has strongly damaged the entire aeronautical sector to think of buoyant markets. If an economic reason is not appealed, we are facing the satisfaction of greater demands from a militia with serious distortions in its original function, towards a state that is bleeding profusely economically and that to its enraptured people, chooses only to give them the plane. Let’s fly comrades!

Twitter: @gdeloya