It is now two years since the first 787 was delievered to ANA. Now, carrier number 14 has their turn. AeroMéxico (airline code AM), the flag carrier of Mexico received their first Boeing 787 on August 16, 2013. It was the 75th Boeing 787 delivered by the company to an airline.
Their 787 will initially serve Mexican domestic destinations including Cancun and Monterrey. On October 14th Mexico City to Tokyo, Japan service will commence. That will mean by the end of the year, four airlines will be flying 787s to and from Tokyo (United, ANA, Aeroméxico and JAL). The second and third 787s, the carrier will receive this year will be used to operate the routes from Mexico City to New York from October and MEX to Paris as of November. They will then get 16 more of the type.
YouTube video of first ever Aeroméxico 787 flight
AeroMéxico’s 787 Dreamliners have two classes. Clase Premier has 32 lie-flat seats arranged 2-2-2. Economy class will have 211 seats in a 3-3-3 layout. All seats are fitted with personal entertainment systems with 16” high-definition Panasonic screens in Clase Premier and Eco-Monitor touch-screens in economy. This system features 20 plus movies and 36 television series. It will also include a Moving Maps system providing flight information in real time, the Jukebox application that allows passengers to program their playlists with some of the 1,500 songs featured in the system; iConnect for iPod synchronization with the entertainment system and the Seat Chat system to communicate with other passengers on the plane, among many other advances
The airline started in 1934 as Aeronaves de Mexico by an entrepreneur, Antonio Diaz. It was government owned until 2007, when it was sold to Banamex, an arm of US based Citigroup. Aeroméxico’s major competitor Mexicana, collapsed in 2010. Delta Air Lines bought a four per cent in the company last June.
Grupo AeroMéxico currently flies 116 planes under its brands. The fleet includes Boeing 777, 767 and 737s and Embraer 145, 170, 175 and 190. Last year, Aeroméxico announced the intention to buy 90 737 MAX jet airliners and ten 787-900 Dreamliners. They are a founding member of the SkyTeam airline alliance.
I have never flown them but Skytrax give them a three star rating. Customers rate them only two star, however! Earlier this year, an Aeroméxico plane was involved in a tail strike incident in Madrid which resulted in pieces of metal being left on the runway. There was criticism of the handling of the incident by the pilots.
Have you flown Aeromexico? Would you fly their 787?
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It looks all carriers with this plane are going to the high density 3x3x3