Mexico’s presidential jet now available to rent for weddings and parties

© Provided by National Post A view shows the interior of the presidential plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner that Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is selling, during a media tour at the presidential hangar at Benito Juarez International Airport in Mexico City, Mexico July 27, 2020.

Mexico’s presidential jet will be available to rent for weddings and parties, Mexican President Andres Manuel López Obrador announced on Monday.

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner was used by López Obrador’s predecessor, former president Enrique Peña Nieto, and was purchased for $200 million. López Obrador has been trying to sell the jet since taking office in 2018.

“It has not been possible to sell it because it is very extravagant and it is made to measure,” López Obrador said at a news conference.

The average rental rate for a comparable Dreamliner is roughly US$30,950 per hour, according to private charter company Paramount Business Jets.

The rental revenue will help cover the presidential jet’s maintenance costs, López Obrador said.

“It will be kept as it is,” he said, adding that it has a wide range of uses — from those wanting to celebrate special occasions, such as weddings, to employers wanting to treat their employees by going on a trip.

© ALEJANDRO MELENDEZ/AFP In this file photo taken on December 3, 2018, Mexico’s presidential airplane sits on the tarmac after its last flight at the Benito Juarez International Airport, in Mexico City.

A jet of its size would normally be suitable for around 300 passengers, but it was altered to seat 80. López Obrador said “it would cost a lot” to reconvert it back to the original seating arrangement.

He said that government officials would not be allowed to use it and that it would be kept at an airport in Santa Lucia.

López Obrador has previously vowed to only take commercial flights.

“I would cringe with shame at boarding a luxurious plane in a country where there is so much poverty,” he said in a video taken by a passenger who was on the same flight as him in 2018.

“The presidential plane is going to be delivered to the company Olmeca Maya Mexica,” he said on Monday.

The company operates Mayan Train, which plans to connect southern Mexican states with 1,500 kilometres of tracks, and the Felipe Angeles International Airport.

Last year, López Obrador said there had been a $120-million offer for the jet, the Associated Press reported, however, it appears nothing came of it.

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