Mexico’s president is planning to raffle off the country’s equivalent to Air Force One, and tickets are going for about $25.
Since winning the presidency in 2018, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has attempted to sell the Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner but has been unable to because of the hefty sticker price of about $130 million. The government has already spent $1.5 million to keep it parked and maintained, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The 66-year-old president, known for flying commercial, came up with the idea to sell raffle tickets and give the airliner to whoever wins the contest. Each ticket will sell for 500 pesos, or about $25, with the goal of selling up to 6 million of the coupons.
“It’s a world-class plane,” Lopez Obrador said on Tuesday while pitching the raffle. “You can fly to Europe on one tank of fuel. That’s 10 hours.”
The raffle is planned to be held on Cinco de Mayo in May, a Mexican holiday commemorating a wartime battle against France.
But the winner of the raffle will be faced with their own challenge of what to do with the massive jet, which costs about $4,000 per week in maintenance alone. Although, the president said the government would pay for parking and maintenance fees for the first year.
Lopez Obrador said the funds raised in the raffle will go toward new medical equipment for the country.
