Mexicans will no longer have to worry about where to park a Boeing Dreamliner when the Mexican government raffles off the luxurious presidential jet — the Mexican Air Force will keep it.
In fact, nobody will win the actual US$130 million Boeing 787 in the lottery-style raffle to be held in the next few months.
Among the many desperate attempts to get rid of the expensive plane, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had toyed with the idea of actually awarding the plane to the winner, along with a year’s paid maintenance and parking.
Photo: AP
However, Lopez Obrador had worried that would cause problems for the winner, because of the greed it could unleash among friends, relatives and acquaintances, and because the idea had been lampooned on social media, with people posting pictures of shacks or taco stands with a jetliner parked outside.
The president on Friday announced that the raffle would be symbolic, awarding total prize money of US$100 million, which lottery tickets state is “equivalent to the value of the presidential jet.”
One hundred winners are to divide equal shares of the total prize pool.
“We did not want to award a prize that would be a problem,” Lopez Obrador said. “You know, the memes — ‘where would I park it?’”
Instead, a cash prize winner would be free to use some of their winnings to rent the plane for a few trips, at the current hourly operating price of about US$13,500 per hour, he said.
The latest scheme did not convince Mexico City graphic designer Antonio Perez, who had hoped the president could simply sell the white elephant, without hitting up Mexicans to buy lottery tickets.
“I agree with some of the president’s initiatives, but on this one, specifically, I don’t agree, because the ones who wind up paying for the plane are going to be the people of Mexico,” Perez said.
Lopez Obrador had tried to sell the plane, but it failed to find a buyer after a year on sale at a US airstrip, where it piled up about US$1.5 million in maintenance costs.
Novelist Eric Marvaz agreed that the whole thing seemed comic, but said that at least the president was speaking directly to the people and not trying to hide anything.
“I think it is quite a hilarious situation, but at least for the first time we’re laughing, not crying,” Marvaz said.
The government hopes to sell 6 million tickets at about US$25 apiece, raising US$150 million. The remaining money is to pay to keep the airplane in flight condition while Lopez Obrador tries to sell or rent it. Any net proceeds would go to buy medical equipment.
Lopez Obrador flies tourist class on commercial flights and views the jet, bought for more than US$200 million by his predecessor, as wasteful.
Experts say it would be too expensive to reconfigure back into a commercial airliner.
Previously, Lopez Obrador had suggested bartering the plane in exchange for US medical equipment or selling it in shares to a group of businessmen for executive incentive programs.
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