MEXICO CITY (AP) – Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s quixotic offer to sell the presidential jet has been going on for the third year, with no sign of a buyer in sight.
López Obrador has already tried to attract corporations and entrepreneurs, even committing himself to raffle the Boeing 787 jet, but without buyers.
Since taking office on December 1, 2018, the president has promised to sell the plane because it is very luxurious. López Obrador is proud of his austerity, flies on commercial flights and made only one trip abroad.
But on Wednesday he acknowledged that the jet is difficult to sell because it is very specialized and made to order.
Although in the past the president talked a lot about receiving offers for the plane, on Wednesday he said “we were unable to sell it” because “they did it under special order”.
The plane was purchased for $ 200 million and was used by the previous president, Enrique Peña Nieto. It has been difficult to sell because it is set up to carry only 80 people and has a presidential suite complete with a private bathroom. Experts say it would be expensive to reconfigure on a typical passenger jet that would carry up to 300 passengers.
López Obrador said last year that the government received an offer of $ 120 million in cash and medical equipment for the plane. He did not explain what happened to that offer.