Mexico's 787 sold: the end of the saga?

Even Dutch national television aired the breaking news this afternoon: Mexico’s 787 has finally been sold. In the latest twist, in what has been mostly a political saga, the aircraft has been sold to the government of Tajikistan.

Mexican President Lopez Obrador announced in a post on Twitter that the agreed sale price for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner for about USD92 million. The aircraft was ordered back in 2012 for USD139 million. Subsequent upgrades to VVIP-standards, and storage and maintenance fees for the past four years, mounted to almost twice as much. Whatever the outcome of the saga would have been, the Mexican government faced a considerable financial loss.

The former Presidential 787 TP-01/3523 (ex XC-MEX, constructionnumber 40695) was the sixth Dreamliner built as a non-standard pre-production model, making it hard to sell in a particularly small market. The President has announced various initiatives over the years to sell the aircraft he refused to fly, the most debated being a national raffle, as well as adding it to the fleet of Mexicana de Aviación, the brand name of this defunct airline was sold to the Mexican government as late as February 2023, to reinstate the airline.

On 8 February 2023, Scramble Magazine reported on Mexico's surplus aircraft. With the sale to the Tajik government, the saga will come to an end.

In the past four years, the Boeing 787 alternated between storage and maintenance at Victorville (CA) and Mexico City-Benito Juarez, where potential buyers were invited to view the plane. The government of Tajikistan will receive the Boeing 787 which will likely replace the presidential Tu-134 RT-65788.

Photo by Enrique Giese (Scramble Archive)