Nicolas Sarkozy's New Plane

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Apr 21st 2009 at 10:02AM

France's fashionable leader Nicolas Sarkozy isn't going to let the economy stand in the way of his new plane. The London Times reports that Sarkozy will be getting a new Airbus A330-200 plane that is bigger than the planes used by other European leaders but not as big as President Obama's Boeing 747-200 otherwise known as Air Force One. The ten-year-old plane was bought from Air Caraibes, the Caribbean airline, and will be outfitted with desks for Sarkozy and a secretary, a meeting room for 12 people and seating for 60 passengers as well as a bedroom and a private bathroom.

Overall the cost of the plane is expected to be 176 million euros (around $227 million) including the refit and the plane should come into service next year. The Times article says that Sarkozy wanted a new plane but went with a used one to save money. The new plane is part of an official fleet in which six Falcon corporate jets will be swapped out for a pair of Falcon 7Xs and four Falcon 2000s.

Tags: airbus, france, nicolas sarkozy, NicolasSarkozy, plane