Mexico presidential plane finally sold after years of peddling: ‘We are happy’

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has finally managed to sell the presidential plane he wanted to get rid of for years. The luxurious aircraft with marble elements, a shower room and flat screens on board has been sold to the government of Tajikistan for about 84 million euros, López Obrador announced.

The sale brings an end to a long-running issue. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was purchased in 2012 for more than 180 million euros by the previous president, Enrique Peña Nieto, and entered service in 2016. When socialist López Obrador came to power in 2018, he put the plane up for sale on his first day at work. In his campaign he had already promised to sell the device, because he said it was a symbol of political corruption and self-enrichment. He himself preferred scheduled flights.

But that was only the beginning of a political saga that would eventually last five years. For a long time no one seemed interested in buying the plane. López Obrador tried to exchange the device for medical equipment, he tried to sell it to a group of businessmen and it was even offered as a prize in a lottery, which was later withdrawn. The plane was for sale unsuccessfully in the United States for a year and a half and was eventually returned to Mexico City.

The fact that it has now been possible to sell the aircraft leads to relief for López Orbrador. “After a long time we managed to sell the plane,” he said from the plane. ‘We are happy.”

Incidentally, the plane yields much less than hoped: the president said earlier that he wanted to save at least 137 million euros. According to the president, the proceeds will be used to finance the construction of two hospitals in poor regions in the states of Guerrero and Oaxaca. López Obrador promised that the hospitals will be completed before his term ends, at the end of next year.