Mexican President rents out private jet for weddings and parties

After trying for years to sell off his ridiculously luxurious jet, Mexico’s President is instead offering up the plane to fancy event planners.

Event planners will have a fancy new spot to offer their guests after the President of Mexico said he would be offering up his luxury private jet to hire.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said his government would now offer to rent out his presidential jet for birthday and wedding parties after failing to find a buyer.

Lopez Obrador, an austerity advocate who uses commercial flights, has been vowing to sell the Boeing 787 Dreamliner since his 2018 election campaign, calling it an “insult” to the people.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. Picture: Pedro Pardo/AFP

The presidential jet will be available for rent. Picture: Alejandro Cegarra/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The plane will be handed over to a military-run company in charge of a new airport that opened last week outside Mexico City and other major infrastructure projects, the President told reporters.

It will be rented out to generate income to cover its expenses and maintenance costs, he said.

The jet will be available if someone “is getting married and is going to take their family and friends” by air, as well as for birthdays and company trips, Lopez Obrador said.

The plane was purchased for about $US218 million ($A289 million) during former president Felipe Calderon’s 2006-2012 term in office, but the only one who used it was his successor Enrique Pena Nieto.

Lopez Obrador was unable to find a buyer for such a massive jet, which is customised with an executive bedroom, private bath and seating for 80 people.

In September 2020, his government held a symbolic raffle aimed at raising funds roughly equivalent to the plane’s value.

The interior of the jet. Picture: Alejandro Cegarra/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The plane is decked out with a full marble bathroom. Picture: Alfredo Estrella/AFP

The bedroom on-board the presidential jet. Picture: Alfredo Estrella/AFP

The announcement about the presidential jet comes as Mexico announced it was opening a new international airport this week – one that will serve the nation’s capital.

The airport was a flagship project of President Lopez Obrador but so far many airlines are hesitant to use it.

Felipe Angeles International Airport, built at a military air base north of Mexico City, began operating with a domestic Aeromexico flight bound for Villahermosa in Lopez Obrador’s home state of Tabasco.

“The airport is 100 per cent complete,” Lopez Obrador said at his daily news conference held at the new airport.

“It’s just a matter of airlines increasing their trips” from Felipe Angeles, he said.

The opening of Lopez Obrador’s first major infrastructure project comes as Mexicans prepare to vote on April 10 in a referendum championed by the President on whether he should stay in office.

The new hub, named after a general in the Mexican revolution, is meant to take the pressure off Benito Juarez airport, which will continue operating.

Benito Juarez, which handled a record 50.3 million passengers in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic, is one of the busiest airports in Latin America.

Its location in eastern Mexico City is far more convenient for many residents of the capital than Felipe Angeles, which is located about 40km north of the city’s historic district.

Felipe Angeles was controversial from the start.

After taking office in 2018, Lopez Obrador cancelled another airport project launched by the previous government that was already one-third complete.

He branded the $13 billion project a “bottomless pit” rife with corruption and tasked the military with overseeing construction of the new airport at a cost of around $3.7 billion.

– With AFP