The presidential plane TP-01 “José María Morelos y Pavón” was used as cargo transport for the team of the Mexican delegation that participated in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, which implied an expense of 2.7 million pesos in fuel. for three days.
The Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner model aircraft, which the government of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador decided not to use and put it up for sale, was arranged to transport the material with which the athletes, trainers and doctors worked during the sports event.
In total, the plane – which had a cost of 218 million dollars and was acquired during the administration of Felipe Calderón – was loaded with around 6.5 tons of sports equipment.
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According to information obtained by Forbes Mexico Through a request for transparency, from July 13 to July 15, the presidential plane consumed around 74,971 liters of jet fuel, which translated into a cost, for three days of travel, of 2,714,000 176.8 pesos.
SUPPLY DATE | PLACE | LITERS | COST |
JULY 13 | MEXICO CITY | 19,030 lts. 24,686 lts. | $ 265,767.08 $ 344,757.03 |
JULY 13 | ANCHORGE, ALASKA, USA | 5,375 lts. 5,833 lts. | $ 416,932,408 $ 452,459,009 |
JULY 14/15 | NARITA, JAPAN | 10,095 lts. | $ 466,060.105 |
JULY 15 | ANCHORGE, ALASKA, USA | 4,294 lts. 5,658 lts. | $ 331,456,563 $ 436,744.61 |
The Secretariat of National Defense (Sedena) explained that this trip was manned by eight members of the Army, salaries for which the Federation annually dispenses around 4 million 47 thousand pesos, to which must be added their annual training that is around 300 A thousand pesos for a plane that is practically on the ground all year round.
CREW OF TP-01 |
1 Lieutenant Colonel of the Air Force pilot aviator |
3 Senior Air Force Airmen Pilots |
2 Second Captains of the Air Force specialists in aviation electronics |
1 Air Force Lieutenant Pilot Airman |
1 Master Sergeant of the Air Force aviation mechanics specialist |
For the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the Mexican Olympic Committee (COM) sent 163 athletes to participate in 26 sports disciplines. The National Commission for Physical Culture and Sports (Conade), directed by Ana Gabriela Guevara, promised 10 Olympic medals; however, only 3 bronze medals were collected.
At first, Arturo Herrera, who served as Secretary of Finance and Public Credit in June, anticipated that the “José María Morelos y Pavón” would be used to transport athletes; however, this offer was rejected by the COM, as the plane only has the capacity to carry 80 passengers.
The federal authorities have tried to sell the presidential plane, cataloged by López Obrador as a pharaonic luxury of the neoliberal governments, but so far there have not been any serious buyers.
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One of the intentions to purchase the plane and about which information is available occurred in June last year, when a buyer allegedly offered $ 120 million in cash and medical equipment, the federal president said at a press conference in Campeche. However, the proposal was unsuccessful.
Attempts to get rid of this device even reached the raffle, which in September 2020 was carried out by the National Lottery, which generated a cost to the treasury of 286 million pesos and a profit of 264 million pesos.
“These looked like kings, look at the luxuries that were given. With so much poverty, this is an insult. We are going to raffle it on September 15 and what is obtained will be used to buy medical equipment and serve the people, “said the chief executive in a spot released last year.
However, little has been reported about the delivery of the 100 prizes of 20 million pesos directed to hospitals and schools that were winners and that would be distributed in collaboration with the National Institute to Give Back to the People the Stolen (Indep).
Recently, President López Obrador has publicly acknowledged the difficulty of his government to sell the TP-01 for its luxuries and configuration.
“We already have the plane, it has been difficult for us to sell it, because it is a plane of very extravagant origin, first class,” he said.
The National Defense reported in 2020 that for the public administration, the maintenance of the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner implies a cost of more than 199 million pesos per year.
About 70 million 46 thousand pesos are spent on fuel concepts; insurance policy, 50 million pesos; annual maintenance, 57 million pesos; training of the crew, 304,800 pesos and for updating the software, 18 million pesos.
In one of the latest attempts to sell the aircraft, the Mexican government contracted the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) to help promote the aircraft.
According to the UN tender, the minimum value required by the Mexican government for the presidential plane is set at 2.5 billion pesos.
However, the tender expired on June 4 and it was not reported if there were any proposals.
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