While Interjet has begun to receive several credit applications as part of its commercial bankruptcy – which, a couple of weeks ago, began in the conciliation stage – on the other side of the border it also has several problems to solve. To date, the airline accumulates more than 42 million dollars in judgments that arise from various lawsuits that the suppliers filed between 2020 and 2021, with whom it will have to reach an agreement as part of the process it maintains with its creditors.
Although to date there is no defined number of creditors, there is a precedent of equivalence between partners in Mexico and the United States. According to Carlos del Valle del Río, former spokesperson for the airline, 93% of the company’s suppliers are Mexican and the remaining 7% are in the United States, and for each supplier in that country there were 15 in Mexico , he said. to Expansion in April 2021.
According to the judgment declaring commercial insolvency, the company’s foreign creditors will have a period of 145 calendar days to submit their requests for credit recognition .
However, Interjet’s suppliers did not sit idly by while the commercial bankruptcy began, since the US courts have issued several rulings on the airline’s debts, which do not constitute minor amounts.
This is the case of Bank of Utah , a financial entity that leased two A320ceo aircraft to Interjet, and that the airline stopped paying since October 2019. Although initially the lessor accused of damage of 83 million dollars in a complaint filed with the Southern District Court of New York, a judge determined a payment of 27.4 million dollars.
The Bank of Utah indicates a loss of income due to the early termination of the contract, signed on February 1, 2017 for a term of 144 months, which ended in July 2029, in addition to non-payment of rent and maintenance fees.
Although the ruling in favor of the aircraft lessor is the largest in financial terms, it is not the only one.
In August 2020, Florida-based fuel supplier World Fuel Services sued the airline for non-payment of six months’ supply of jet fuel, interest, and other costs that the plaintiff is claiming as part of the process. In November of the same year, the Court of the Southern District of Florida sentenced Interjet to pay 10.7 million dollars .
Additionally, the City of Chicago – owner and operator of O’Hare Airport – filed a $3.3 million lawsuit against Interjet in June 2020, including $2.6 million in airport fees and charges, $135,117.95 in interest , and an amount for the collection of passenger facility charges (PFC) on behalf of the city, which he never submitted. The airport fees and charges owed were given in the period from July 2019 to November 2020.
“Interjet has no legal or equitable right to $516,882.99 in PFC that it collected on behalf of the City of Chicago,” the initial indictment filed with the Northern District of Illinois court reads.
Another of the plaintiffs was the WFS company, a provider of airport services in 179 locations around the world, and which in August 2020 claimed Interjet for breach of contracts at the Miami, Houston and Las Vegas airports. In February 2021, the Court for the Southern District of New York determined the payment of $939,376 to WFS.
