New presidential jet is 15 years old, Nigeria is third user – Investigation by CenturyPost

Newly acquired presidential aircraft, Air­bus A330-200, with registration number, 5N-FGA, is 15 years old, investigation has revealed.

Also, Nigeria is the third owner of the same aircraft with test registration number, F-WWKR, and Manufacturer Serial Number (MSN), 1053, reports Daily Independent.

Information gathered by our correspondent indicates that the federal gov­ernment had taken delivery of the air­craft on Sunday from Toulouse, France, its production site.

It was gathered that the controversial aircraft was manufactured in Novem­ber 2009 with the registration number, VP-CAC, for Midroc Aviation, based in Jeddah, King Abdulaziz International, Saudi Arabia. ­

The aircraft was with the con­figuration, VIP; engines, 2xRR and HEX CODE, 4241AC.

Read also: Explainer: What to know about Tinubu’s new presidential jet

The Saudi Arabian aviation company operated the aircraft for 12 years before it was ac­quired by AMAC Aerospace in April 2021 with the same regis­tration number, configuration and engines.

AMAC Aerospace is a Switzer­land based company, which oper­ated the aircraft for three years before it was acquired by the Ni­gerian government recently and upgraded to the current status.

The federal government, ac­cording to investigation, took de­livery of the aircraft on Sunday, August 18, 2024 with the registra­tion number, 5N-FGA and HEX CODE, 06430C, from a factory in France.

Though the government has kept mute about the cost of the aircraft, information gathered by our correspondent indicated that the government acquired the airplane at the cost of $100 mil­lion and retrofitted with state-of-the-art gadgets with another $50 million.

The price of a brand new A330- 200 aircraft is $238.5 million, while A330-300 is priced at $264.2 million and A330-200F costs $241.7 million to acquire.