A group of Mexican investors has bought a controlling stake in Mexicana airlines in a bid to save the debt-ridden company, the consortium announced Saturday. The group, called Tenedora K, said it acquired a 95 percent stake in Nuevo Grupo Aeronautico SA de CV, the holding company that controls Mexicana de Aviacion and the domestic airlines Mexicana Click and Mexicana Link. It said the pilots' union will hold the remaining 5 percent of shares. The deal was announced in a statement from the consortium released by the private equity firm Advent International. Advent helped put together the deal but is not participating in the consortium. – AP Tenedora K said the acquisition is a “first step” toward restructuring Mexico's largest airline. It said the process will involve agreements on finances, operations and labor “without which it will not be possible to save the airline.” The consortium did not say how much it paid for the controlling share or how much it would invest in the airline. Mexicana executives said earlier this month that the company needed an infusion of at least $100 million to keep flying. The airline filed for bankruptcy protection in Mexico and the United States on Aug. 2 while seeking to restructure its costs. It later stopped selling tickets and suspended some flights. The company reached a deal earlier this month with pilots and flight attendants in which the unions agreed to new contract terms in exchange for a stake in the company. In court filings, Mexicana said it was badly hit by the swine flu outbreak last year that scared away travelers for months and by the global economic slowdown. The airline added that high jet fuel prices and labor costs contributed to its financial troubles. Before the bankruptcy filing, the company unsuccessfully sought union agreement on pay cuts of 41 percent for pilots and 39 percent for flight attendants, along with a 40 percent reduction in employees, saying both were needed to keep the company afloat. Labor leaders rejected the proposal, saying their members already agreed to cuts in 2006. Mexicana flies to more than 65 national and international destinations, including the United States, Canada, Central America, South America and Europe. It transported 11.1 million passengers in 2009, according to the company's website.
