The Mexican government just sold its $218 million Boeing 787 private jet its president refused to use — see inside the plane

Tue, 05/02/2023 - 05:00

Tech Insider

Travel

• Mexico has finally sold its presidential Boeing 787 private jet, which it purchased for $218 million in 2012.
• The now-depreciated plane will be repainted in California before being delivered to Tajikistan in Central Asia.
• The "ostentatious" Dreamliner was sold because the Mexican president refused to use it.

Mexico has finally gotten rid of its unwanted presidential plane.

Source: AP

In mid-April, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador announced the nation's VIP Boeing 787 private jet had been sold to Tajikistan for $92 million.

Source: AP

The Dreamliner started its journey to the Central Asian nation on Friday, first flying to Tucson, Arizona, for customs clearance, per the Mexican government. The jet will then travel to California for a new paint job.

Source: FlightRadar24, Mexican Government

According to López Obrador, the price tag reflected the jet's depreciation. Speaking in Veracruz on April 21, he said the money will be used to build two new hospitals in the Mexican cities of Tlapa and Tuxtepec.

Source: Flight Global, Aviacionline

"Wow, it was difficult for us to find a client," he said. "We are like the nouveau riche, who buy a yacht or an airplane like this, and are only happy the day they launch it and the day they sell it."

Source: Mexican Government, Andrés Manuel

Mexico's fancy presidential jet was purchased for $218 million in 2012 by then-president Felipe Calderón as a replacement for the country's aging VIP Boeing 757.

Source: CNN

But, it wasn't delivered until 2016 — after he left office — and fell into the lap of Calderón's successor, Enrique Peña Nieto, who was the president before López Obrador.

Source: CNN

The 80-seater plane — which is actually one of six 787 test aircraft built by Boeing — was equipped with a presidential suite, complete with a private office, shower, meeting room, king-sized bed, and treadmill...

Source: Insider, The Points Guy, Mexican Government

…as well as conference tables and large reclining seats each with an inflight entertainment system, according to the Mexican government.

Source: Insider, Mexican Government

But, López Obrador says the jet's lavish decor was purchased during a "paranoiac" era and is an "insult" to Mexico's people: "Not even Obama has a plane like this one."

Source: Insider

Because of this, he deemed the "ostentatious" plane too luxurious to fly in and instead regularly flies commercial.

Source: Flight Global

Moreover, he criticized his predecessor Peña Nieto for spending $19 million on travel from 2012 to 2015 — López Obrador only spent $1 million from 2018-2021, Forbes Mexico reported.

Source: Forbes Mexico

"Imagine, there are no longer private planes, private helicopters," he said in 2019. "I was not going to get on the presidential plane, a very luxurious plane with so much poverty in our town."

Source: Forbes Mexico

But, grounding the plane was costly. In 2022 alone, Mexico spent over $15 million on lease payments — and that doesn't include the millions it spent on upkeep.

The deal with Tajikistan comes after years of failed attempts to find a buyer, which has been ongoing since López Obrador took office in 2018.

In early 2020, the president tried to sell the jet to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, saying his 787 was "bigger…and better" than Canada's current VIP plane.

Two years later, Mexico turned its eyes to Argentina. However, the South American country said the Dreamliner's high price tag — which was $110 million at the time — was higher than its $30 million budget.

After the rejection, the president saw the odds of selling the 787 as minuscule — especially since converting it into a 300-seat passenger plane would be too costly for airlines.

Source: Insider

So, López Obrador decided to rent out the Dreamliner for private events, like weddings, quinceañeras, and parties. Anyone could reserve the plane and the revenue would help with maintenance costs.

Source: Insider

More recently, the president said he tried to sell the jet to Mexican flag carrier Aeroméxico, and even to US heads of state.

Source: Flight Global

"I offered it to President Trump," López Obrador said in April. "I offered it to President Biden, we offered it to Vice-President Kamala Harris – she just laughed when I explained what the aircraft was like."

Source: Flight Global

However, the most controversial attempt to abandon the plane was to host a lottery in September 2020. A law preventing the raffling of government assets ended the plan.

See inside the $218 million Boeing 787 jet that Mexico's president refuses to use and is now renting out for parties instead

Instead, the event became "symbolic" and Mexico hoped to raise $142 million, with 100 people splitting two-thirds of the prize and the excess funds going to underfunded public hospitals.

Source: CNN

More than 4.2 million tickets were sold for $25 each, amounting to over $105 million raised. The 100 winners were selected at a ceremony in Mexico City and each got about $1 million.

Source: CNN

However, some experts say the move was just for political gain: "What matters to him is to say 'look at the luxuries and privileges of the past and instead I'm austere'," analyst and historian Jose Antonio Crespo told AFP in 2020.

Source: France24

Read the original article on Business Insider

Tags

Transportation, Travel, News, Features, Business Visual Features, Mexico, Boeing 787, Dreamliner, Private Jet, presidential jet, Austerity

Source

The Mexican government just sold its $218 million Boeing 787 private jet its pr…