Want a private jet? The next President of Mexico has one for sale: NPR



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The Mexican presidential plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner called Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon, arrives at Mexico City's Benito Juarez International Airport in February 2016, while it was brand new . The plane was one of the most expensive presidential planes in the world. Mexico's next president is trying to sell it.

Hector Vivas / LatinContent / Getty Images


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Hector Vivas / LatinContent / Getty Images

The Mexican presidential plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner called Jose Maria Morelos y Pavon, arrives at Mexico City's Benito Juarez International Airport in February 2016, while it was brand new . The plane was one of the most expensive presidential planes in the world. The next president of Mexico is trying to sell it.

Hector Vivas / LatinContent / Getty Images

The Boeing 787-Dreamliner is large, luxurious, almost new – it's only two years old. It's downright presidential, since it was built to transport a head of state.

The elected president of Mexico does not want it . Not even a little. But that does not mean that he can not praise .

In fact, he has a whole sales pitch.

"This is not only efficient and modern," President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador told the press on Friday, widely known by his initials AMLO. "It's a comfortable plane, with a bedroom, a restaurant, a lot of space."

If you set it up as a jet plane, you can install 280 people, he points out. Plus, it's famous!

And if you want it, it's up to you. For a price.

  How the Mexican López Obrador became the man to beat in his third presidential race

López Obrador went on to become a leftist populist who declared that he was the only one to win the race. he would attack corruption and reduce his own salary – while capping the salaries of other civil servants and eliminating the benefits of government employment.

Letting down the presidential plane, bought by his predecessors at a hefty $ 218 million, was one of his campaign promises. As he approaches his inauguration in December, he says he has not changed his mind.

In fact, López Obrador decided to sell – or lease – a whole series of aircraft and helicopters belonging to the federal government. "We will not use this fleet," he said firmly in August.

Profits from the sale or lease of airplanes and helicopters would be used for social programs, he said.

At a press conference held on Friday, López Obrador asked the badembled journalists to help him get the message out to potential buyers.

Bright eyes, he explained the virtues of the plane, called "Jose Maria Morelos y Pavón".

"If you want to buy it, I will deliver it myself," he said. "We would have a ceremony and you would travel on a very important plane.

" This is not just the cost of the plane, the value of the plane, the utility from the plane: it is the fame. "

He added that maintaining the plane would cost about 500 million pesos – about 25 million dollars a year.

He may remember that it was unlikely that the crowd of journalists pay this bill, López Obrador asked them.

"Help me forward this call so that it circulates around the world," he said. "Some people might be interested .

In 2016, before the arrival of the mark- According to a new plane, the Mexican government insisted that a presidential plane was important, not only for the safety of the president, but also for the efficient transportation of the press that accompanied him.

But López Obrador has always insisted that it was a useless luxury.

As a President-elect, he remains stuck in this post and the iers will not be surprised to learn that this has already been proven. In September, he spent hours on a commercial plane delayed by the weather – in the end, he waited four hours waiting for a one-hour flight, reports Reuters. .

"Official flights can also be delayed by bad weather" The officer notes that "but they have priority to land when the weather is clear"

"I will not change d & # 39; Because of this, I never ride in the presidential plane, "said López Obrador at the airport, according to Reuters. "I would die ashamed to use such a luxurious plane in such a poor country."

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