Aeromexico’s’s Formula for Disaster
“Leadership; See beyond the ordinary”
It’s 8 hours later and we sit in the Tijuana airport, frustrated, hungry and beyond exhaustion. Aeromexico flight 4068 from Cancun to LA, via Mexico City, was now in its 17th hour. After a fog delay that halted our attempted landing in LA, after being re-routed to Tijuana until the skies cleared, after 7 hours spent on the stationed airplane waiting for communication from crew, any communication whatsoever, we sit and wait for action. What we instead received was silence, lime flavored peanuts, a limited stock of beverages, and an $85 peso meal voucher after 7 hours.
No Hotel, no refunded ticket, no information, and even more appalling, no apology.
As we attempt to find something to eat with our whopping $85 pesos meal voucher (about $7 US), only given to us after much prodding, I notice a poster on leadership (pictured above) across from me. I can’t help but smirk and find this poster ironic. Leadership; the very quality Aeromexico failed to possess at every level.
Poor Management, Poor communication, Poor initiative, Poor decision making, Poor priorities.
It is only after eavesdropping on a passenger’s enraged conversation with a crew member that I discover the plane will not be departing until 10:30 AM.
3 hours still to go and making it 24 hours since we boarded the plane in Cancun.
I am fatigued, angry, baffled and seeking answers by the time I board. I ask myself how a company can make such bad decisions and continue to stay in business. How can a airline operate on non-existent management?
And then…an apology. A crew member greets us at 10:30 AM with a written statement. They are appreciative for our patience and they are sorry for the ordeal. And with that we disembark.
As for Aeromexico, they can blame the ordeal on weather delays and continue to fly.
