About

A specialist aviation lawyer, Carlos Hassey Artigas has accumulated experience which is multifaceted in nature as it includes regulatory, commercial, tax, and liability issues. His legal career began as an associate at Haynes & Boone between 2004 and 2005, where he experienced his first taste of aviation work when he participated in the acquisition of an international airline, and on a separate matter drafted and negotiated the codeshare agreement between two international airlines. Spending some time at law firm Jauregui, Navarrete y Nader as an associate, Hassey Artigas gained knowledge that would prove essential in his future in-house career: project finance, insolvency matters, real estate financing, aircraft financing and government procurement. He also participated in the acquisition and sale of companies in USA and Mexico, drafting and negotiating both domestic and international contracts in the process. Hassey Artigas eventually joined Aeroméxico, Mexico’s flag carrier airline, in 2011. With a team of 25 consisting of lawyers and other staff, he mainly works on restructurings, financing 787 jets and supporting the company’s entrance into the private US market. Hassey Artigas gained particular recognition internally when he and his team worked with the Mexican aviation authorities to expedite the time it takes to acquire permits for aircrafts and then for them to take flight after purchase date. With each day costing the company money, reducing the time period from 20 days to just five is marked as a significant achievement. Being in the airline industry, Hassey Artigas and his legal team have to be able to respond to unusual problems, while keeping the business running as close as possible to normal. An example of this was during the recent Paris attacks when one of Aeroméxico’s pilots was unable to report to his hotel. Hassey Artigas and his team contacted their local counsel and the embassy, in order to prepare for any possible situation with them should the need to close the borders and suspend flights arise. Another example is when hurricanes hit Mexico, ‘the government asked us to send rescue flights to such destinations so that people could come back from Acapulco and Los Cabos, we managed to reschedule a lot of flights in order to support our people’, Hassey Artigas says.