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 Travel & Outdoors | March 2007 
Grounded Mexican Airline Leaves Hundreds of Tourists Stranded
 Wolfy Becker - Journal Peru
| This is the second time in less than a year that Mexican authorities ordered the grounding of a national airline.
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The Mexican government has suspended operations of low-cost carrier Lineas Aereas Azteca on Monday because of safety deficiencies, financial problems, administrative and technical procedures, leaving hundreds of traveling customers stranded.
“We are still here without sleep or food”, said Bertha Moncada while standing in front of the check-in counter at Mexico City’s International airport. “Nobody is helping us”, she added. Moncada and her family wanted to enjoy their vacation on the beaches of Mexican tourist hotspot Cancún but they never got there.
Azteca offered flights to 19 Mexican cities and Los Angeles, California. Local transport authorities have issued a deadline of 90 days during which the low-cost carrier has to correct its problems.
At the time of the sudden suspension yesterday, the airline fleet consisted of four planes which carried 113.592 passengers in first months of 2007, representing 2,32 percent of all flight passengers in Mexico. The suspension could also affect passengers who have currently bought or reserved about 25.000 tickets, many of them looking forward to an Easter vacation.
This is the second time in less than a year that Mexican authorities ordered the grounding of a national airline. In April 2006, all flights of Aero California were suspended because the budget carrier failed to comply with safety standards. After several months the airline resumed its operations.
23 year old student Miguel Torres had boarded a plane in the northern city of Juárez City and had also selected Cancún as his travel destination. He, too, is now stuck in Mexico City. “They opened the door of the airplane and told us that we had to evacuate because there was a technical problem”, he said on Tuesday morning, after he and twenty other passengers spent the night in a corridor at the airport. This was the only explanation he received from Azteca personnel.
“This is not right. I bought a ticket for 1.800 pesos and now I am going to have to buy another one for 2.000 pesos and nobody is going to reimburse the money”, he complained.
Mexico’s consumer protection agency (Profeco) has installed a counter inside the airport to receive the complaints and denunciations of affected clients. A spokeswoman told Reuters news agency that she has received 256 complaints since Monday afternoon. The agency is also in negotiations with other carriers to strike a deal for the other outstanding 25,000 tickets.
An employee reached by telephone at Azteca’s offices in the Mexico City airport said the company had not yet issued a response to the government’s action.
Azteca began its operations in June 2001, after acquiring the assets of Mexico’s Taesa airline which had to file for bankruptcy after one of their planes crash in November 1999.
Fernando Gamberos, a 46 year old retailer also on his way to Cancún, said he would remain in the airport until the company or the government has a solution. “I am not going anywhere. Just get me my bed and my closet”, he said. |
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