The Air Force will reportedly attempt to lower costs on a pair of new presidential planes by buying two Boeing 747 jetliners abandoned by a bankrupt Russian airline.
Service officials are ”working through the final stages of coordination to purchase two commercial 747-8 aircraft," Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told Defense One.
The deal could be announced as soon as this week, though the Air Force is not expected to release the contract value, according to the report.
Officials said the Air Force is getting a "good deal" on the planes, which are, on average, listed at $386.8 million each.
The two planes, which are slated to be altered to become Air Force One presidential aircraft, were originally ordered in 2013 by Russia's second-biggest airline Transaero, which went bankrupt in 2015.
Courtesy the Hill. Original report from Defense One.
edit:
How, I asked? Well, additional information from Defense One makes it pretty clear:
The 747s that will be transformed for Presidential transport were originally ordered in 2013 by Transaero, which was Russia's second-largest airline until it went bankrupt in 2015. Boeing built two of the four jets in the order, but the airline never took ownership of them.
Typically, an airline makes a 1 percent down payment when it orders a plane, then pays the balance in installments. Transaero did not fulfill its scheduled payments, according to an industry source.
”Aeroflot absorbed most of Transaero's existing fleet, but declined to pick up Transaero's 747-8I orders worth $1.5 billion at list prices," FlightGlobal reported last month.
So Boeing flight-tested the two completed jets and put them in storage. Flight tracking data shows that the aircraft, numbered N894BA and N895BA, were last flown in February, to the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, a sprawling facility in the Mojave Desert whose hot, dry air prevents corrosion. This ”boneyard" is largely occupied by retired commercial jets that still bear the liveries of Delta, FedEx, British Airways, and Cathay Pacific. Other planes, unmarked, sit with their engines shrinkwrapped in anticipation of one day returning to flight.
Boeing has been paying to store the two 747s in new condition while searching for a buyer, which allowed the Air Force to negotiate a good deal for them, sources said. It's similar to the way car dealers discount new vehicles from the previous year when new models hit the lot.