By Andrea Shalal and Tim Hepher
(Reuters) – President Donald Trump toured a Boeing plane on Saturday to highlight delays in delivering new Air Force One aircraft, said the White House.
The president negotiated with Boeing for a pair of new 747-8 aircraft during his first administration – between 2017 and 2021 – but the planes are now years behind schedule.
The two aircraft were expected to be delivered in December 2024 but Boeing has pushed the arrival until at least 2027 or 2028 – towards the end of Trump’s second term in office.
“President Trump is touring a new Boeing plane to checkout the new hardware/technology,” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said. “This highlights the project’s failure to deliver a new Air Force One on time as promised.”
The aircraft the president visited at the Palm Beach International Airport is a 12-year-old plane formerly owned by Qatar’s royal family and is now operated by a company in the Isle of Man, according to two aviation websites.
It was not immediately clear if Trump’s Saturday plane tour was coordinated with Boeing.
Boeing had no immediate comment on Trump’s visit and referred questions on delays in the Air Force One program to the Air Force.
Last month, Boeing’s CEO Kelly Ortberg said the company was meeting with Trump’s ally Elon Musk – despite Musk’s SpaceX competing with the Boeing space division – to get the plane updated quicker.
“The president wants those planes sooner so we’re working with Elon to see what can we do to pull up the schedule of those programs,” Ortberg told CNBC on Jan. 28.
Boeing leaders have said that production has been slowed by supply chain issues, high costs and the complexity of the planes that are intended to be an airborne White House.
In 2016, Trump called out the high price tag for new Air Force One aircraft and demanded that the then-Boeing CEO agree to a contract of no more than $4 billion for the two planes.
Since then, Boeing’s leadership has said the contract was priced too low for the planes equipped with military avionics, advanced communications, and a self-defense system to withstand worst-case security scenarios.
Trump also proposed changing the look of the new Air Force One planes to incorporate a dark red color, but former President Joe Biden tweaked those plans back to resemble the current light blue model.
However, the miniature Air Force One model atop Trump’s Inauguration Day cake on January 20 featured the president’s preferred red-line design.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Tim Hepher; writing and additional reporting by Bo Erickson; editing by Diane Craft)
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