Mexico’s next head of state will continue to fly commercial despite a nearly five-hour layover yesterday in the airport at Huatulco, Oaxaca.

President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador was scheduled to leave the resort town at 5:20pm but the VivaAerobus flight to Mexico City didn’t leave until just after 10 due to weather conditions in the capital.

But López Obrador remains determined to continue traveling without the benefit of presidential or private planes.

While waiting for his flight to leave he told reporters he had not changed his mind, and that one of his first actions as president will be to sell the presidential plane, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

“I will not get on the presidential plane, I would be embarrassed . . . to get on a luxurious plane in a country with so much poverty,” he said, adding that the time for “bragging, show-off and arrogant politicians” is over.

The president-elect landed in Mexico City a few minutes after 11.30 last night.

Source: Milenio (sp)