The delay would likely have been little noticed in Mexico had it not been for one passenger onboard. His name is Andrés Manuel López Obrador, though he is better known by his initials, Amlo, and he is Mexico’s president-elect.

López Obrador has also pledged repeatedly that when he enters the presidential office in Los Pinos this December, he will sell the presidential plane that comes with it and take commercial flights like ordinary Mexican citizens.

On Wednesday, video circulated on social media of López Obrador sitting by an exit door on the grounded VivaAerobús plane — and justifying his plan to sell Mexico’s presidential jet to the curious passengers who had noticed him. In one clip, the president-elect is shown saying he would be ashamed if he used a “a luxury airplane in a country with so much poverty."

AD

AD

“I’m not going to change my mind because of this,” he said.

López Obrador, 64, won a landslide victory in July’s presidential election in large part because of anger at the current right wing government, which has been embroiled in numerous corruption scandals. He has pledged not only to sell or rent out the presidential plane but also turn to the presidential palace into a public park and forgo bodyguards when appearing in public.

In late August, López Obrador announced that he had received the first serious offer for the Mexican presidential plane — an expansive Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that has enough room for 250 passengers and was delivered at a cost of $218 million in 2016.

AD

Ironically, the offer came from an American, Floridian Russell Dise, who is a staunch supporter of President Trump.

AD

López Obrador has also spoken skeptically of plans to build a new $13 billion airport for Mexico City, to replace the overcrowded one that currently serves the city. The president-elect has said that the airport is a waste of taxpayer’s money but pledged to support a nationwide vote on whether the project should proceed or be canceled.