Yes, they do. The previous president ended their VIP jet program and sold the presidential 787 — and said Mexican politicians fly commercial. But although interesting, that wasn’t really my point.

My observation was that she chose a connecting flight to get here … rather than the WS non-stop that connects the Mexican capital to Calgary.

Unnecessary connections are time wasters and often painful. I’m by no means a head of state, but I’ll always take a non-stop if it’s remotely feasible. Even if that means I need to fly without status and/or on a bad airline. (Like when I fly AA to Dallas.)

Unless she had some other reason to stop in Vancouver, the decision would seem to call into question the desirability of the WS service on this route.

It will be interesting to see how she gets back to MEX after the G7 concludes. Fingers crossed for WS that she flies the WestJet non-stop for her return segment. If she also returns on AC via YVR, it’s a bit of a slap in the face for WS.

As you're not doubt aware, connecting flights are often cheaper than non-stops.
If the populist leader wants to provide the illusion of saving money, that's her choice.
Either way this would be considered a huge security threat. Especially with the troubles that Mexico has.

I suspect she'll fly Aeromexico out of YVR again. Would be odd for a leader to not fly on their home country's national airline if possible (even more odd than the fact she flew commercial to begin with).

She didn't fly AM on the way up, she flew AC.

She was supposed to fly home last night, and WS didn't have a YYC-MEX last night, so it's unlikely she flew WS home either.

She did meet with Alexis, among other Calgary business leaders, while she was here.

News from WestJet yesterday (July 2):

https://westjet.mediaroom.com/2025-0...w-destinations

Nothing really all that exciting in this announcement -- it's a slight expansion of what was already announced. But this jumped out at me as the PR people tried hard to sell it:

A "seamless single connection"? :rolleyes:

Clearly written by somebody who has not done the overnight trek between T1 and T2 at MEX. Sure, it's a seamless connection on the YYC end. But while connecting at MEX is many things, it sure ain't "seamless".

Perhaps instead they could sell it as an adventure tourism thing using an Amazing Race style of challenge. "You land in the early morning hours at an airport that's almost entirely closed. Your next flight leaves from a completely different terminal -- that's located on the far opposite side of the massive airfield. The only way to get there is the airport train, but it's closed for the night. Go! And ... good luck."

i wonder if this is their stock script that they just replace with whichever airline name they need to at the time! :rolleyes: