The beleaguered airline Interjet has announced the cancelation of all its flights in January, attributing the decision to the coronavirus pandemic.
The budget carrier, which has a 2.5-billion-peso (US $125.7-million) tax debt, said in a statement that the pandemic has deepened the crisis it faces and forced it to cancel flights. Interjet also canceled many flights in November and December because it had no money to purchase fuel.
The aviation news website A21 reported that the next Interjet flights are scheduled for the first days of February. But sources close to the airline said in December that Interjet may never resume operations.
The carrier’s financial problems have affected both passengers, who have been left stranded due to flight cancellations, and employees, who are owed up to three months’ worth of salary payments and benefits.
Some workers said on December 31 that they received one of six fortnightly payments they are owed but others said they got nothing.
Interjet faced a slew of problems last year that a change of ownership failed to remedy. Among them: the repossession of many of its leased aircraft, legal claims filed by ex-employees over unpaid severance pay and severe cash flow problems.
Meanwhile, Interjet Vacations, the airline’s legally unaffiliated travel agency division, announced Monday that it filed for bankruptcy last month.
Source: A21 (sp)
