When French President Sarkozy went shopping for a new official aircraft, he wanted to demonstrate austerity. Instead of ordering a new aircraft, he bought a used A330 from Air Caraibes, for a mere $83m. This was supposed to impress the voting public.
However, they will probably be less impressed when they hear about the $400m makeover that Sarko gave his new ride. Especially since he recently did not miss any chance to remind toute France how everyone needed to pull in the collective belt, as the times of plenty were over.
Not for Sarko, though, or so it seems:
While the Royal Couple flew commercial across the Atlantic and David Cameron and his wife took budget airline Ryanair on their holiday last summer, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was busy retrofitting his plane with $108,000 ovens.
The president's jet, dubbed by pundits as "Air Sarko One," is a $83 million Airbus A330 bought from Air Caraibes, the Daily Mail reports.
Sarkozy allowed the plane to undergo a roughly $410 million retrofitting, which included the installation of a roughly $3 million office, an en-suite bedroom and - wait for it - $1.6 million electric shutters.
Most first class cabins on commercial flights only have microwaves. Sarkozy's plane has not one, but two electric ovens capable of making pretty much anything.
The plane also comes equipped with a missile defense system, a medical room and a conference room for 12 people, which features a special chair to make the 5'5" president seem taller.
http://news.travel.aol.com/2011/07/27/n ... tty-penny/
Ideology: The mistaken belief that your beliefs are neither beliefs nor mistaken.
