The temper of a Mexican airline pilot reached boiling point on Friday, when he decided to barricade himself inside the cockpit, refusing to operate the flight until he was fully paid. The situation unfolded with an aircraft full of passengers at Mexico’s busiest airport, Mexico City International Airport Benito Juárez (MEX).

Onboard the Boeing 737 airplane, the pilot of the Mexican charter airline MagniCharters took to the loudspeaker of the aircraft to advise the passengers what he was planning on doing, while making numerous claims that the airline had not been paying him correctly, forcing the individual to take such drastic measures.

Not Leaving Until Paid

The situation was recorded by many who shared on social media, with the footage presenting the pilot at the front of hte aircraft taking to the intercom to warn all the passengers onboard about the action he was about to take. Once this speech was over, he then barricaded himself in the cockpit. The affected flight is alleged to be that of UJ780, with the incident occurring at 3:00 pm local time as per Flightradar24.

As reported by news outlet Infobae, the pilot claimed that he had not been paid correctly for up to five months; further claims have also suggested the individual had been fired. The Cancun Sun has since reported it was likely a mix of both scenarios. The latter was reported claiming that the pilot was fired just before the flight, and instead of leaving gracefully, he decided to stage a standoff, where he locked himself in the cockpit, demanding his final paycheck.

MagniCharters operates just a handful of 30-year-old 737s, which require continued financial investment and constant maintenance. Poor financial planning has plagued the airline with previous allegations of challenging labour relations and delayed payments to creditors.

Bring In The Navy

The Mexican Navy and other federal authorities were subsequently called in to help manage the unfolding situation, where they were able to calm the upset pilot, who eventually was able to de-escalate the situation and remove the individual from the cockpit.

While it remains unclear whether the pilot’s claims of remaining unpaid for five months are yet to be verified, it has shed light on charter and leisure-focused airlines’ financial stability and reliability. MagniCharters is one of four airlines that have regular flights between Mexico and Cancun, alongside the nation’s flag carrier Aeromexico, and other low-cost carriers Viva and Volaris. All flights operate to Mexico City, with Viva and Volaris also operating to AIFA and Toluca.

According to data from ch-aviation, MagniCharters has a small fleet of just three Boeing 737-300 aircraft, all of which were acquired from Southwest Airlines. XA-VCE was delivered to the airline in December 2018 (previously N631SW). 30-year-old XA-VDM (previously N607SW) arriving in October 2019, and 30-year-old XA-VCI (previously N605SW).

XA-VCE is configured to carry 122 passengers, while the latter two aircraft can accommodate 143 in an all-economy class layout. Historically, the airline has also operated the Boeing 737-100, 737-200, and 737-500.

A Look Into MagniCharters

MagniCharters, which is the airlines commerical name, is officially Grupo Aereo Monterrey S.A de C.V, and is based out of Colonia Juarez in Mexico City. The airline primarily offers domestic routes for leisure passengers to and from the country’s capital. The airline was established by the Bojórquez family in 1994 to offer charter flights for Mexican travel agency Magnitur. The airline uses the IATA code UJ and the ICAO code GMT. Its callsign is ‘GRUPOMONTERREY’.

The airline was the first carrier in Mexico to recruit a female pilot, and in 2014, the airline planned to grow its fleet by almost a third, through an investment of $2.5 million. Since 2000, the airline has provided several year-round scheduled domestic services, such as Mexico City to Cancun.

Additional seasonal services see the carriers routemap explode to most major tourist resorts, and add several international links to Cuba (Havana, Varadero), and the Dominican Republic ( Punta Cana). Historically, the airline also served two United States airports, Las Vegas (LAS) and Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW).