Mexicana to take first 717 next month
By Brendan Sobie
Mexicana plans to take delivery next month of the first of 25 Boeing 717s and place the aircraft, which will be operated by low-cost unit Click in a two-class configuration, into service at the beginning of April.
Carrier SVP for engineering and maintenance Armando Furio says a team of Mexicana technicians are now in Miami, where the aircraft is undergoing a heavy check, and will be ferried to Mexico City on 20 March. He says the aircraft will then be repainted at Mexicana's Mexico City maintenance facility in the new Click livery before entering revenue service on 1 April.
Click plans to initially operate the 717 between Mexico City and Angel Albino Corzo International Airport in Chiapas. Furio says Mexicana Group will take about one additional 717 per month, including eight in 2009, until it finishes replacing its current fleet of 25 Fokker 100s in early 2011.
The first batch of Click pilots is now undergoing pilot training in the US for the 717. Furio says Mexicana also has begun the process of adding an in-house maintenance capability for the 717.
Furio says Mexicana should have the tooling and training to do 717 heavy checks this summer and may be hired by Boeing Capital to do the pre-delivery heavy checks on the final 17 aircraft. Boeing Capital is leasing Mexicana all 25 of its 717s.
"We will try to be ready to in July or August to do checks," Furio told ATI during an interview today at Mexicana's maintenance base at Mexico City International Airport.
While Mexicana will do its own light and heavy airframe maintenance for the 717 in Mexico City, engine maintenance will be outsourced.
While Click's Fokker 100s are now in a 100-seat all-economy configuration, the 717s will feature 20 business class and 84 coach seats. Mexicana says this recognizes the fact that Click, which over the last couple of years has taken over several domestic routes from Mexicana mainline, has become a large business passenger carrier.
Mexicana has elected to keep the seats installed by former operator Midwest Airlines although the galleys will be removed because Click does not serve food. Click's first 16 717s are aircraft that were returned by Midwest to Boeing Capital late last year. Boeing Capital has not yet informed Mexicana of the source of the final nine aircraft.
Boeing Capital and Mexicana have been negotiating for the last couple of months five-year leases covering 25 717s. Mexicana says the deal has not yet been signed but is expected to be shortly, and in anticipation Boeing Capital and Mexicana have begun preparing for the first delivery on 20 March.
