MEXICO CITY (AP) – The quixotic offer of Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to sell the presidential plane has been extended for its third year, with no sign of a buyer in sight.
López Obrador has tried to attract corporations and business executives, and even promised to raffle off the Boeing 787, but without prey.
Since taking office on December 1, 2018, the president has promised to sell the plane because it is too luxurious. López Obrador is proud of his austerity, flies commercial flights and has only made one trip abroad.
But on Wednesday he acknowledged that the jet is difficult to sell because it is too specialized and made to order.
While in the past the president has talked brilliantly about getting deals for the plane, on Wednesday he said “we couldn’t sell it,” because “they did it on a special order.”
The plane was bought for $ 200 million and was used by the previous president, Enrique Peña Nieto. It has been difficult to sell because it is configured to carry only 80 people and has a complete presidential suite with private bathroom. Experts say it would be costly to reconfigure itself into a typical passenger plane that would carry up to 300 passengers.
Lopez Obrador said last year that the government received a $ 120 million offer in cash and medical supplies for the plane. He did not explain what happened to this offer.