Mexico City, Mexico — President Claudia Sheinbaum has received the first of 20 Embraer E195-E2 aircraft for Mexicana de Aviación. The plane was delivered July 1 at the From Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA).
The new Embraer E195-E2 aircraft has capacity for 132 passengers and can generate fuel savings of up to 30 percent.
“Having a state-owned airline means having the capacity to respond, it means being able to evacuate areas affected by natural disasters together with the National Defense. It means being able to transport medicine, food, and medical personnel together with the National Defense.
“It also means having logistical sovereignty. Mexicana de Aviación is not just a logo, nor a fleet of planes, 20 of which will arrive between this year and next, it’s a declaration of principles,” Sheinbaum said during the Tuesday ceremony.
“It’s a clear message that Mexico wants to fly high, but with its feet on the ground, with direction, with justice and with national pride. In a world where decisions are often made based on economic interests, having an airline of the people and for the people is a profoundly human and also profoundly political decision.
“It means betting on equity, on national integration, on sovereignty,” she stated.
Sheinbaum recalled that Mexicana de Aviación’s primary objective is the well-being of the public and offers routes unserved by commercial and foreign airlines, providing a decent, accessible and reliable service.
“Mexicana de Aviación, although it must be profitable, obviously, and efficient, is telling every Mexican man and woman: wherever you live, you also matter, you also have the right to fly, you are also part of the Nation’s Project,” she said.
Sheinbaum emphasized that recovering Mexicana de Aviación was not an ideological whim but a strategic decision that allows the Mexican government to maintain logistical sovereignty for its air mobilization in the event of an emergency or defense.
“Mexicana de Aviación also serves to mobilize our people, our forces and our resources,” she added.
She explained that former President Andrés Manuel López Obrador recovered Mexicana de Aviación not only as an act of justice for its workers, who were left jobless after the company was dismantled as a result of its privatization during the neoliberal era, but also as a symbol that Mexico’s skies belong to its people, and that the national flag can and should also fly on the planes that fly through our airspace.
The new Embraer E195-E2 aircraft has capacity for 132 passengers, reaches an average speed of 963 kilometers per hour, and features an aerodynamic design to reduce operating costs by up to 30 percent in fuel.
Mexican State Airlines General Director General Leobardo Ávila Bojórquez, highlighted that, during the first half of 2025, Mexicana de Aviación transported more than 200,000 passengers which represents a 24 percent increase compared to the same period in 2024.
He estimated a 25 percent increase in the second half of this year to reach the goal of 450,292 passengers in 2025, already with the increase in the aircraft fleet.
He explained that the 20 Embraer E195-E2 aircraft that Mexicana de Aviación will receive will arrive gradually. Five in 2025, seven more in 2026 and the remaining eight in 2027.
For this purpose, 56 pilots are already being trained and 84 flight attendants are planned to be integrated. The first commercial flight of the new aircraft is scheduled for August 25.
