Investment fund Advent International could invest some $49 million into Mexico's Mexicana de Aviacion to keep the airline flying, local media and a union said on Wednesday, Reuters reported. Pilots from Mexicana de Aviacion reached a preliminary deal this week that calls for wage cuts and staff reduction in a desperate bid to keep the 89-year-old airline operating, according to local media. Mexicana has halted more than a dozen international routes and stopped selling tickets after requesting creditor protection two weeks ago under Mexico's insolvency law, called concurso mercantil.

Airline Mexicana said Wednesday it is returning a quarter of its aircraft fleet to leasing companies and suspending some services offered by its low-cost and regional arms for the first time amid a deepening crisis at Mexico's largest carrier, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Compania Mexicana de Aviacion, the main unit for international flights, had already suspended some flights after filing for insolvency and bankruptcy protection on Aug. 2.

Compania Mexicana de Aviacion, Mexico’s biggest airline by passengers, agreed to return at least eight leased airplanes and a U.S. judge put off ruling on a bid to shield the company from creditors, Bloomberg reported. Mexicana agreed to return three planes to Wells Fargo & Co. One was returned in July, Arthur Rosenberg, a lawyer for Wells Fargo Bank Northwest NA, said today in an interview. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn in Manhattan today postponed ruling on Mexicana’s request for a preliminary injunction barring legal actions by creditors.

General Motors Co. agreed to pay employees of its European division up to €1.1 billion, or about $1.4 billion, if it fails to honor commitments to invest billions into new cars and trucks in the region through 2014, according to a regulatory filing Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported. GM said in the filing it expects to have a final deal with European labor unions in place by Sept. 30. The auto maker and unions reached tentative agreements earlier this year.

Telecom equipment maker Nortel Networks Corp., which is in the midst of selling off divisions as it works through Canadian bankruptcy, said its loss expanded in the second quarter as revenue fell 86 percent, Bloomberg Businessweek reported. The net loss in the three months to June 30 came to $1.5 billion, or $3.02 per share, compared with a loss of $274 million, or 55 cents per share, a year ago. The loss included reorganization costs of $1.4 billion. Revenue came in at $145 million, compared to $1.01 billion a year ago.

Youth unemployment across the world has climbed to a new high and is likely to climb further this year, a United Nations agency said Thursday, while warning of a “lost generation” as more young people give up the search for work, The New York Times reported. The agency, the International Labor Organization, said in a report that of some 620 million young people ages 15 to 24 in the work force, about 81 million were unemployed at the end of 2009 — the highest level in two decades of record-keeping by the organization, which is based in Geneva.

The main unit of Mexicana said Wednesday that it had resumed ticket sales as it faces a showdown next week with creditors seeking to retrieve their aircraft from the Mexican airline, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. A senior executive said Compania Mexicana de Aviacion restarted sales online and through ticket offices. Adolfo Crespo, senior vice president of customer service and corporate communications, said it would resume indirect sales through travel agencies, initially via those connected to the Amadeus booking system.

Debt-ridden airline Mexicana de Aviacion needs a cash injection of at least $100 million to keep flying, the company's chief executive said on Tuesday, Reuters reported. "What we are looking for is between $100 million and $150 million," Chief Executive Manuel Borja said in an interview with Radio Formula. Time is ticking for troubled Mexicana, which has ceased flying more than a dozen international routes and stopped selling tickets after requesting creditor protection last week under Mexico's insolvency law, or concurso mercantil. The company has yet to be declared bankrupt.

The McCormick Macnaughton Caterpillar dealership in the Republic has been taken over by Canadian firm Finning, but the group’s rental businesses have ceased trading, The Irish Times reported. Assets belonging to three rental-related companies in the McCormick Macnaughton group, including three premises, will be sold off at an auction scheduled for September 4th. Management at Finning, the world’s largest Caterpillar dealer, took over the running of the dealership in west Dublin on Monday.

The main unit of Mexicana on Monday said that it was cutting flights "to a minimum" amid falling sales and cash reserves following last week's bankruptcy filing, Dow Jones reported. Compania Mexicana de Aviacion also said its problems had spread to regional and low-cost units, MexicanaClick and MexicanaLink, which did not file for creditor protection but are suffering "serious repercussions" on sales. Mexicana said it was suspending flights starting Monday to 13 destinations, including long-haul services from Mexico City to Madrid, London, Buenos Aires and Sao Paulo.