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Business Mexican airlines A clumsy giant stumbles
商業 墨西哥航空公司 一個拙劣航空巨人的窮途末路
Mexicana's bankruptcy will bring welcome turbulence to Mexican skies
墨西哥航空公司的破產將迎來墨西哥上空的群雄爭據時代
AFTER 89 years in the skies, North America's oldest airline seems ready to ditch.
馳騁天空89載，北美最老牌的航空公司看來要退出歷史舞臺了。
Compania Mexicana de Aviacion filed for bankruptcy protection on August 2nd and has been in a tailspin ever since:
8月2日墨西哥航空公司申請破產保護，從那以后墨西哥航空公司運營一直處于混亂狀態。
ticket sales were stopped on August 4th and a third of its routes were suspended a few days later.
8月4日起機票開始停止出售。幾天后，三分之一的航線停運。
The airline says it has lost $350m since 2007 and now owes nearly $800m.
航空公司說自2007年以來，他們已虧損3.5億美元，現在外債接近8億。
These are difficult times for airlines everywhere.
現在各地的航空公司都處于慘淡經營期。
But despite the entry of several low-cost carriers since 2005, fares in Mexico have remained old-fashionedly high:
但是盡管2005年該公司引進了幾架低成本航班，但飛機票價依舊停留在舊時的高位。
an hour's flight from the capital's main airport to Guadalajara, Mexico's second city, cannot be had next month for much less than $175 return.
從首都主要機場飛往瓜達拉哈拉（墨西哥第二大城市）的一小時航班，下個月的返程票價不可能比175美元低很多。
Sao Paulo to Rio, a similar hop, can be done for $100.
而圣保羅到里奧的類似短途客機，票價僅100美元。
Partly because of this, middle-class Brazilians fly three times more often than their Mexican counterparts.
其中部分原因是由于巴西中產人士搭乘飛機的次數是墨西哥中產人士的3倍。
Some of Mexico's costs are imposed by fate.
一些墨西哥航班費用昂貴是因為天公不作美。
The thin air of Mexico City, which lies at 2,250m (7,380 feet), reduces a plane's range and the weight it can carry.
墨西哥城2,250米的高空處(7,380英尺)空氣稀薄，這使航班的類型和載客重量都受到了限制。
(Flights to Tokyo, for instance, must refuel in Tijuana.) Its international airport, Latin America's busiest, is in a built-up area with no room for a third runway, though the airport is running at capacity.
(例如，到東京的航班必須在提華納城加油）做為南拉丁洲美最為繁忙的國際機場，盡管它已經滿負荷運轉了，但由于機場處于建筑密集區，已沒有空間再建第三條跑道了。
Last year was especially cruel: while suffering the deepest recession in the Americas, Mexico was hit by the outbreak of H1N1 swine flu, which emptied the country's popular beach resorts and cut airport traffic by one-sixth.
去年的經營情況尤為嚴峻: 當墨西哥正遭受最嚴重的經濟危機時，H1N1禽流感又突然爆發，讓該國廣受歡迎的海灘度假勝地無人光顧，航班業務也減少了六分之一。
However, some of Mexicana's problems are man-made.
然而墨西哥航班出現的問題有些是人為導致的。
The firm blames its bankruptcy on onerous labour contracts, under which it says pilots earn 49% more than their counterparts at big American airlines although America is a rich country and Mexico is not.
公司把它的破產歸咎于繁重的薪金用工合同，按合同規定，墨西哥飛行員的薪水要比大美航空的同行高出49%，盡管美國是富有的國家而墨西哥不是。
The Mexican pilots' union says this figure is "inexact" but has not provided one of its own.
墨西哥飛行員工會說這個數字不確切，但又提供不出他們自己的數字。
Working hours are capped so that return flights sometimes require two separate crews,
員工的工作時間也設置了上限，導致有時往返的航班需要兩班機組人員。
and in some cases the company must train its own pilots rather than hire cheaper outsiders.
在某些情況下公司寧可培訓自己的飛行員也不請便宜的外勞。
These burdens are hangovers from Mexicana's days as a state airline, which ended in 2005 but whose influence has never quite been shaken off.
這些負擔早在墨西哥航空公司作為國有航空那天起就一直如影隨行，直到2005年才它們被免除，但其影響力卻從未因此減弱。
It is a rarity in Latin America, "the one region in the world where state-backed carriers have faded out of existence to be replaced by or reborn as fully private airlines," says Alex Dichter, head of the airline practice of McKinsey, a firm of consultants.
麥肯錫航空業務咨詢公司主管Alex Dichter說，在拉丁美洲這個地區，國有航空公司被全私營公司取代或自己改組成私營公司的情況是極其少見的。
The continent claims several success stories, including Panama's Copa Airlines, one of the most profitable carriers in the world.
這片陸地曾造就過幾個成功的航空傳奇，包括世界上最賺錢的航空公司之一，巴拿馬航空公司。
Mexicana's failure may have a silver lining.
墨西哥航空公司的倒閉可能為墨西哥航空業帶來一線生機。
For a start, it will give breathing space to low-cost carriers such as Interjet and Volaris,
首先，Interjet和Volaris這樣低成本運行的航班將會有喘息的空間。
which have gobbled up 21% of domestic traffic since 2005 but have been kept out of many of the most profitable routes by the older airlines.
從2005年起，他們已接管了21%的國內航班業務，但許多最賺錢的航線就一直由老牌航空公司把持著。
By bilateral agreement, most routes to the United States may only be operated by two airlines from each country, so popular hops such as Mexico City to New York are the exclusive business of Mexicana and its rival Aeroméxico, another pricey, formerly state-run carrier.
根據雙邊協定，飛往美國的大多數航線只能由雙方各兩家公司負責營運，因此廣受歡迎的墨西哥到紐約短程航班成為墨西哥航空公司和它的競爭對手Aeromxico(墨西哥另一家票價昂貴的前國有航空公司)的專享航線。
These two old fossils also hold most of the take-off and landing slots at Mexico City's main airport, relegating the upstarts to the out-of-town Toluca airport (from which a flight to Guadalajara costs more like $115).
這兩個老古董一直把持著墨西哥城主要機場的大部分起飛和降落空位，卻把一些航空公司的后起之秀排擠到城外的Toluca機場（從那里飛往瓜達拉哈拉的航班票價是115美元）。
Vultures are already circling over Mexicana's valuable slots.
一些貪婪的野心家早已對墨西哥航空公司賺錢的航線垂涎已久。
But the airline's chances of surviving in some form have been helped by a ruling by America's Federal Aviation Administration on July 30th,
美國聯邦航空管理局7月30日做出的裁定幫助這家航空公司以某種形式存留下來的機會增加。
which downgraded Mexico's flight-safety rating a notch, owing to a lack of air-traffic controllers.
由于航空交通管制不足，墨西哥飛行安全評定等級被降低。
One impact of the ruling is that Mexican airlines cannot open new services to the United States, meaning that rivals cannot take over routes that Mexicana has been forced to shut down.
這種裁定產生的一個影響是墨西哥航空公司不能開通飛往美國的新航線，這意味著競爭對手不能接手墨西哥航空公司被迫關閉的航線。
Existing routes, however, are not affected—so any airline that took over Mexicana would inherit the American routes it already flies.
然而現存的航線卻不受影響—因此任何航空公司在接管墨西哥航空公司以后，將繼續運營它已經開通的美國航線。
"It's a problem for the Mexican airline industry that could hold an answer for Mexicana," says Tomás Lajous, head of Mexico strategy at UBS, an investment bank.
墨西哥瑞士投資銀行策略主管Tomás Lajous說，"墨西哥航空產業能否承擔起墨西哥航空公司的重擔仍是個問題"。
Mexicana may end up attracting more bids than a bankrupt airline might expect.
墨西哥航空公司最后吸引來的投標商數量可能會比這個破產的航空公司所希望的要多。
