The Mexican government will sell the Aeromexico airline consortium before the end of 2007, the group’s president said Tuesday. “We have board meetings in February to define in what form the shares the federal government still has in the Aeromexico consortium will be discarded with the aim that it be concluded - the sale process - this year for sure,” Andres Conesa told media outlets.

The government controls 62 percent of Aeromexico, while the remaining 38 percent is in private hands.

Until late 2005, both Aeromexico and the country’s largest carrier, Mexicana de Aviacion, were managed by the Cintra holding company, which was taken over by the government when it became insolvent.

At the end of November 2005, hotelier Grupo Posadas bought Mexicana for $165.5 million, and it was expected that Aeromexico would be sold off prior to the end of the 2000-2006 administration of Vicente Fox.

Conesa said Tuesday that the delay in selling Aeromexico was due to authorities’ desire to wait for conditions in the market to improve, “but now the commitment is for (the sale) this year.”
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