The Russian state company Irkut has recently spoken about the proposal to return to Russia the 22 SuperJet (SSJ) aircraft belonging to the bankrupt Mexican airline Interjet, as reported by our associated media, Aeroin citing statements from the RIA Novosti agency.
According to Irkut’s press service, this possibility is virtually nil. This is due to the fact that the aircraft lost its airworthiness after the company began to have financial problems and left the equipment on the ground.
In view of this, before the imposition of sanctions, it was considered possible to restore the airworthiness, but the cost would be very high. With the sanctions and given all the bureaucracy that accompanies the bankruptcy process, the availability of spare parts became much more difficult, making the business unfeasible.
“Now that time has passed since the operation was closed, the return is technically and legally unfeasible,” says the Irkut press office.
If it were possible to bring the planes back to Russia, they could serve local companies, which suffer the sanctions and will need to increase their fleets or, at least, have spare planes to continue with the services in operation.
The decline of Interjet
The first signs of problems took place in 2019, when Interjet began to suspend routes and reduce the size of its fleet. In just under six months, the company disposed of most of its aircraft and its administration handed control over to Alejandro del Valle, who took over as CEO.
However, del Valle was unable to stop the company’s decline. Both he and Miguel Alemán Magnani, founder of Interjet, faced accusations of tax fraud.
By the end of 2020, the impact of the crisis generated by the pandemic added to the debts in fuel payments, payrolls, and taxes, eventually strangling Interjet.
In April of this year, the Second District Court in Commercial Bankruptcy Matters in Mexico City formally declared Interjet’s bankruptcy.
