MEXICO CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st April, 2023) The government of Tajikistan will purchase the presidential Boeing 787-8, which Mexico has been seeking to sell since 2019, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Friday.
"I am informing the people of Mexico that today, the contract for the sale-purchase of the presidential plane was signed. The government of Tajikistan transferred 1.6 billion peso ($92 million) in line with the official evaluation to the account of the Institute to Return the Stolen to the People. This money will be invested in two hospitals, in Tlapa, Guerrero, and in Tuxtepec, Oaxaca which will be built by military engineers and opened before the end of our term," Obrador wrote on social media.
The aircraft in question is a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner which was purchased for the Mexican presidency in 2016. Then, the plane's price was almost $219 million. The incumbent president pledged to sell the plane before his inauguration, but the government was not able to find a buyer.
In November 2022, due to its failure to find a purchaser, the government announced it was transferring the luxury aircraft to the Mexicana de Aviacion airline in order to lease the plane for private events.
