Luxury plane Mexico’s president tried to get rid of returns from US without a buyer
- Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has long painted opulent Boeing 787 Dreamliner as a symbol of past excess in country where half the population lives in poverty
- Aircraft is fitted with marble-lined bathrooms, presidential suite and private bath
The luxury presidential plane Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wants to sell returned on Wednesday to Mexico, more than 1½ years after he sent it to the United States in search of a buyer.
Mexico has struggled to sell the opulent Boeing 787 Dreamliner, which the leftist Lopez Obrador has cast as a symbol of excess and corruption under previous governments in a country where around half the population lives in poverty.
Lopez Obrador early on Wednesday announced the plane’s return, and television footage showed the aircraft landing in the afternoon at Mexico City’s Benito Juarez International Airport where it was due to enter the presidential hangar.
The plane was acquired by former president Enrique Pena Nieto in 2012 and fitted with marble-lined bathrooms. Reconfigured to fly only 80 people, the plane has a “presidential suite” and a private bath.
The sale has been hamstrung in part by Lopez Obrador’s unwillingness to accept offers below a United Nations-backed valuation of US$130 million, even as the plane was potentially losing value as it sat unused in southern California.