Mexico’s flying ‘white elephant,’ a specially-configured Boeing 787 with only 80 seats and a full luxury bath suite, will now be available to rent for parties, weddings, and the like, either on the ground or in-flight.
Built to spec as an official plane for Mexico’s presidents, it has a full Presidential Suite with the private bath and other fancy fittings, but it hasn’t been used since 2018 and will now be moved to Mexico City’s new airport and parked there, awaiting customers.
Mexico’s President Obrador made the presidential jet an issue in his election campaign in 2018, saying it was too expensive and too luxurious to be appropriate for a country with many other needs. He makes a point of his own austerity and flies commercial, unlike his predecessor, Enrique Pena Nieto.
Obrador put the plane up for sale when he took office, and even held a mock auction for it, but it has not attracted any serious buyers, although the government says it will still take any real offer. Because of all the specialty fittings, the cost of reconfiguring it to serve as a regular passenger jet is too great to be practical.
