Saturday, February 28, 2026

While AMLO waits for his commercial flights, Peña Nieto faces delays too

While incoming president López Obrador continues adjusting his schedule due to commercial flight delays, the presidential plane he has declined to use once he takes office is seeing delays as well.

For the second time in just over two months the president’s Boeing Dreamliner 787 was unable to fly yesterday due to an onboard computer problem.

Instead, President Peña Nieto returned to Mexico from the United Nations General Assembly in New York aboard an older plane that the Dreamliner replaced two and a half years ago.

The same thing happened in July. A computer glitch meant the onboard computer had to be restarted, a process that takes at least two hours.

López Obrador made it clear during the presidential election campaign that he would sell the Dreamliner and continue flying commercial. He repeated that assertion in Huatulco, Oaxaca, last week, where he was stranded for over four hours due to weather conditions in Mexico City.

The weather intervened once again on Saturday. Heavy rains in Mexico City delayed the president-elect’s flight from Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, by three hours.

But López Obrador’s time wasn’t wasted. He chatted with citizens in the airport waiting lounge, even talking on the phone to one passenger’s husband who didn’t believe his wife was traveling with Mexico’s new president.

Source: Milenio (sp), La Silla Rota (sp)

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