Avolar related news,
Azteca Airline Grounded by Regulator over Maintenance
Lineas Aereas Azteca was grounded indefinitely today by Mexico's civil aeronautics authority for a litany of problems in most areas of its operation. "Its administrative, financial and technical segments are all very deteriorated," said civil aeronautics head Gilberto Lopez. However he also said that sub-standard maintenance and under-trained technicians had made it necessary for the regulator to immediately curtail operations at Azteca. Around 25,000 ticket holders are now left with unusable tickets. Coming only days before the Easter holiday break, the grounding will upset the plans of many. Antonio Morales de la Pena, head of consumer watchdog agency Profeco, called upon other airlines to honor the Azteca tickets or at least to offer the ticket-holders lower fares. Azteca had been slowly winding back its route structure of late and had recently backed off to servicing only 19 of its authorized 50 destinations. Azteca had been controlling up to 2.3 percent of the total Mexican traffic. Debt woes had been added to by a lessor seizure of one of Azteca's key airplanes last month. After 90 days, unless Azteca has come up with a satisfactory solution, its Airline Operating License will be rescinded.
