AGL 40.00 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
AIRLINK 131.50 Increased By ▲ 1.97 (1.52%)
BOP 6.86 Increased By ▲ 0.18 (2.69%)
CNERGY 4.53 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-2.16%)
DCL 8.82 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-1.34%)
DFML 41.89 Increased By ▲ 0.20 (0.48%)
DGKC 83.50 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-0.32%)
FCCL 32.90 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (0.4%)
FFBL 77.00 Increased By ▲ 1.53 (2.03%)
FFL 11.93 Increased By ▲ 0.46 (4.01%)
HUBC 109.95 Decreased By ▼ -0.60 (-0.54%)
HUMNL 14.28 Decreased By ▼ -0.28 (-1.92%)
KEL 5.46 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (1.3%)
KOSM 8.22 Decreased By ▼ -0.18 (-2.14%)
MLCF 39.03 Decreased By ▼ -0.76 (-1.91%)
NBP 64.71 Increased By ▲ 4.42 (7.33%)
OGDC 198.00 Decreased By ▼ -1.66 (-0.83%)
PAEL 25.92 Decreased By ▼ -0.73 (-2.74%)
PIBTL 7.63 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.39%)
PPL 157.20 Decreased By ▼ -0.72 (-0.46%)
PRL 26.09 Decreased By ▼ -0.64 (-2.39%)
PTC 18.00 Decreased By ▼ -0.46 (-2.49%)
SEARL 81.71 Decreased By ▼ -0.73 (-0.89%)
TELE 8.07 Decreased By ▼ -0.24 (-2.89%)
TOMCL 34.39 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-0.35%)
TPLP 8.79 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-2.98%)
TREET 16.80 Decreased By ▼ -0.67 (-3.84%)
TRG 59.30 Decreased By ▼ -2.02 (-3.29%)
UNITY 27.75 Increased By ▲ 0.32 (1.17%)
WTL 1.45 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (5.07%)
BR100 10,618 Increased By 211.3 (2.03%)
BR30 31,663 Decreased By -50.1 (-0.16%)
KSE100 99,087 Increased By 1758.9 (1.81%)
KSE30 30,867 Increased By 674.5 (2.23%)

Mexico's President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a stickler for austerity who has vowed to fly only commercial, spent three hours stuck on a grounded plane because of bad weather, Mexican media reported Thursday. The anti-establishment leftist, who won Mexico's July elections in a landslide, was trying to return from the southern city of Huatulco on Wednesday evening, but bad weather in Mexico City, his destination, prevented his Viva Aerobus airlines flight from taking off.
He and the other passengers spent nearly three hours on the grounded plane, then were asked to go back to the terminal, where they waited another hour before the flight was finally able to leave, according to media reports. Official flights can also be delayed by bad weather - like the rain storm in
Mexico City on Wednesday night - but they have priority to land when the weather clears. Despite losing four hours waiting for a one-hour flight, Lopez Obrador insisted he will go ahead with his plan to sell the costly presidential jet.
"I'm not going to change my mind because of this. I'm never getting on the presidential plane," he told journalists at the airport. "I'd die of shame to use such a luxurious plane in a country with so much poverty."
Lopez Obrador, widely known by his initials, "AMLO", has been criss-crossing the country in a post-election "thank-you tour." He won the election on an anti-corruption platform, and has vowed to shun the privileges long enjoyed by what he calls Mexico's "mafia of power" when he takes office on December 1.
He plans to live in his modest home rather than the presidential palace, cut the presidential salary by more than half, and set that as the maximum pay for all public officials. Lopez Obrador, 64, is fond of bashing the presidential jet, saying "not even Donald Trump has one like it." The 300-seat Boeing Dreamliner 787, in use since 2016, is valued at $220 million, according to Reforma.
In August, Lopez Obrador received an offer from a Mexican businessman to buy it for $99 million and use it as a high-end air taxi to the tune of $20,000 an hour.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2018

Comments

Comments are closed.