At first it sounds like a typical case of bad behavior aboard airplanes.
The Mexico City International Airport acknowledged in a statement Friday that a man had opened an emergency exit and walked out on a wing of a plane that was parked and waiting for takeoff Thursday.
The airport said the man had been turned over to police.
But dozens of fellow passengers signed a written copy of a statement saying the airline made them wait for four hours without ventilation or water while the flight was delayed. According to photos of the statement posted online, fellow passengers said he acted “to protect everyone, with the support of everyone.”
Deboarding happens all the time. Passengers board, malfunction detected, everyone is taken off the plane. There is absolutely no liability to deboarding.
The only issue was some manager’s bonus was at risk if they didn’t have 100% departures.
It seems a bit odd to me that the crew would stick up for some manager this much. Especially since the plane did not depart in time either way. I’m leaning towards something going wrong with the communication between the airport and crew, resulting in them having no permission to deboard the plane but your guess is as good as mine.
The crew gets paid hourly with the clock starting only after the doors close. They don’t get paid for all the time waiting for boarding/deboarding or other delays when they aren’t on the plane with the doors closed. It doesn’t matter to them whether they are in the air or not. Tarmac delays increase crew pay because longer turn around means more hours paid.
https://www.flyingmag.com/guides/flight-attendants-pay-per-hour/#:~:text=Flight attendants are only paid,the cabin door is closed.
In the US, after many high profile incidents, DOT rules require that the plane offers deboarding after 3 hours. But this wasn’t the US so abusing the passengers for profit is legal.
https://www.cntraveler.com/story/tarmac-delay-rules
There was no miscommunication. It was profit motivated.
I could see the crew having a profit incentive if what you said is true but that’s a different argument
I already linked proof that crew are paid starting when the door closes? It was in the news during the last airline strike.
Yeah but again that’s not what you said before. Before that it was le evil manager guy not risking his booonus
Profit margins on flights average around 9%. A plane that deboards is a loss of tens of thousands of dollars. Executives get bonuses based on the airline’s profitability.
https://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2885&context=etd
You think an airline is pissing off customers with long delays for the lolz? Why would they do that if they could save money by deboarding?
Very interesting, I didn’t expect their margins to be this low. 9% is nothing for the capital investment you have to put up to get and run an airline, no wonder so many of them are going broke.