Aeroméxico seeks four more months to file restructuring plan

Grupo Aeroméxico has asked the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York to extend the deadline for filing its restructuring plan to June 25, 2021. The current deadline falls on February 25, 2021. The airline said that while it has “accomplished a great deal so far” in its Chapter 11 restructuring, it still needed more time to complete negotiations with stakeholders and formulate a final restructuring plan. In particular, Aeroméxico said that it still had outstanding issues to address in terms of “rationalising its workforce” and renegotiating fleet strategy. The Aeroméxico (AM, México City Int’l) parent said the talks had been further complicated by the prevailing uncertainty regarding the pandemic and its impact on market recovery. “[Aeroméxico] presently only require[s] a portion of its aircraft to be available for current operations, which, in turn, makes, among other things, fleet planning and negotiating with counterparties based on aircraft usage extraordinarily difficult… [The airline] must plan for an untold number of potentialities, including those based on historic, unprecedented market conditions,” the carrier argued. Aeroméxico underlined that the terms of its debtor-in-possession (DIP) funding of USD1 billion, approved in August 2020, required it to conclude labour negotiations and achieve “substantial progress” regarding claims reconciliation and fleet negotiations at least 50 days in advance of the filing of the restructuring plan. This deadline is unachievable under the current timeline. If the request is approved, creditors will have until August 24, 2021, to approve or reject the plan. The Mexican carrier is the last of the three Latin American airline holdings requesting an extension to its restructuring plan filing period. In January 2021, LATAM Airlines Group’s request for an extension was granted, moving the filing deadline to June 30, 2021. In December 2020, Avianca Holdings secured an extension to May 5, 2021.