After several months of negotiations, the national government awaits the arrival in Argentina of the new presidential plane, scheduled for next week, when the painting work being carried out in the United States is finished.
This was stated to
Clarín
by official sources, who explained that the aircraft will be "ready next week" and will have "
a bedroom, a meeting room and 39 seats."
"It is scheduled to arrive next week.
No flight will be made to inaugurate it.
It will only operate when required like any other plane," they pointed out
.
At the end of last November, as anticipated by Clarin, the Government made the decision to move forward with the purchase of an aircraft to replace the emblematic Tango 01 to cover the President's trips.
The
Boeing 757-256 was purchased for a value close to 25 million dollars
, since the Government had to disburse some 22 million dollars in addition to the delivery of the Tango 01, valued at about 3 million US dollars.
The national Executive delivered Tango 01 as part of the payment, which was acquired in 1992, during the Presidency of Carlos Menem, for some 66 million dollars and which turned out to be a lousy deal for the state coffers: it has been out of operation since 2016, for an annual maintenance of around 220 thousand dollars, and would be taken as part of payment for around three million dollars.
Regarding the origin of the acquired aircraft, the sources consulted detailed: "It was born as a passenger plane and in 2006 it was bought by an American and made executive. It had several technological updates, which means that it is at the top of all the technological requirements of the modern airplanes. For example, it would allow the President to have constant communication with the outside world, something that currently does not happen."
The new presidential plane, a Boeing 757-256, will have "a bedroom, a meeting room and 39 seats."
Photo: Courtesy World Stage
The clarification regarding the possibility that Alberto Fernández is not left incommunicado while in flight is not a minor fact, since in the tours he made abroad it was one of the topics of debate.
"It is important that the presidential fleet have a plane to use on trips abroad," said sources close to the head of state, who also acknowledged that the decision was accelerated after the last tour that Fernández made, in which he suffered a decompensation as a result of of erosive gastritis that was diagnosed during his stay in the city of Bali, in Indonesia.
A report from the General Secretariat of the Presidency, in charge of Julio Vitobello, highlights that "in the present administration some 4,371,286.36 dollars have been disbursed" for renting planes for presidential transfers.
That same document details the risks to the security of the Head of State and his entourage on commercial flights, highlighting the deficit in "medical and electronic security."
"The President does not travel on commercial flights because the security of the presidents and international security does not allow it," the spokesperson for the Presidency, Gabriela Cerruti, had argued at the end of last November during a press conference at the Casa Rosada .
The Boeing 757-256 model 2000 that the Government bought is owned by C&L Aviation Group, the company that was selected by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), an organization that depends on the United Nations and that was in charge of the operation purchase of the plane.
"It is cheap in relation to other planes sought for the transfer of heads of state, which allows it to fulfill all the required missions at a reduced cost. The Boeing 757-200 is an airplane with excellent operational qualities due to its high speed, ceiling of service, autonomy, power and medium fuselage, which allows a correct distribution of the rooms necessary for the presidential transfer," explained government sources linked to the operation.
look also
The Government formalized the purchase of the new Tango 01 for US$ 22 million
Alberto Fernández now says that he is not going to buy the planes and weapons that he had promised to the Armed Forces