The Argentine government announced in January that nearly the entire fleet of presidential transport aircraft; the 757-200 (T-01) F.28-4000 (T-02) F.28-1000 (T-03) and 737-500 (T-04) would be retired from service in the following months, mainly due to the cost of maintaining the aging fleet, especially the F.28's since spare parts for these are increasingly difficult to find. The only presidential aircraft being retained is Learjet 60, T-10 (c/n 60-140), a relatively young aircraft having been delivered in 1998.
After the January announcement, T-01 was flown to El Palomar Air Force Base on the outskirts of the city of Buenos Aires for storage. The aircraft was purchased by the Argentine government directly from Boeing in 1992 for $ 60 million and has only logged 11,000 hours but it is due for extensive maintenance, including a heavy C-Check on its airframe plus major work on its engines and landing gears and updating of avionics and other electronics. Total cost of the work would come to $ 20 million, more than the value of the aircraft itself, so it is being put up for sale, probably for spare parts.
T-02 was first delivered to Argentina in 1999 and has flown faithfully until recent times when it has been largely inoperative, apparently due to budgetary reasons and sporadic spare parts availability. For example, in 2012, T-02 was only operational for seven days the whole year. More recently, the aircraft was returning from Cordoba (COR) on 02Aug16 with Argentine President Mauricio Macri and two cabinet members aboard, when the starboard engine experienced thrust problems forcing the crew to shut it down and operate the remaining part of the flight on one engine.
The aircraft is still operational but it is questionable for how long.
T-03 is parked at El Palomar and is no longer in service. It was only operational for 107 days in 2012.
T-04 was originally delivered to Malaysian Airlines System in 1993 and flew for Air France and other operators before joining Aerolineas Argentinas on 11Oct04.
Aerolineas was due to return the aircraft to the lessor in 2014 but the maintenance work required prior to its return was going to cost more than the value of the aircraft itself so the airline bought the plane and passed it on to the Argentine presidential fleet where it would see limited flying hours compared to airline service. However, with the accumulation of deferred maintenance items, the plane has finally been taken out of service and also parked at El Palomar with its engines removed.
This aircraft is frequently used by Argentine President Mauricio Macri for travel within Argentina.
Another photo of T-03 (c/n 11028) when it had already become T-03 but with a different color scheme than the current one. (Phil Perry Collection)
Sources:
http://loudandclearisnotenought.blogspot.com.ar/2010/07/t-01-boeing-757-23a-cn-25487470.html
http://loudandclearisnotenought.blogspot.com.ar/2010/06/t-02-fokker-f-28-fellowship-mk-4000m-cn_25.html
http://loudandclearisnotenought.blogspot.com.ar/2010/06/t-04-fokker-f-28-fellowship-mk-1000m-cn.html
http://loudandclearisnotenought.blogspot.com.ar/search?q=t-04
http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1863229-adios-a-los-tango-el-gobierno-dara-de-baja-a-toda-la-flota-presidencial
http://noticias.perfil.com/2016/02/19/el-ultimo-vuelo-del-tango-01/
http://www.clarin.com/politica/Ponen-Tango-comprar-nuevo-avion_0_1607239466.html
http://www.ambito.com/845740-gobierno-vende-tango-01-y-04-y-comprara-nuevo-avion-presidencial
https://aerospotter.blogspot.com.ar/2016/08/el-t-02-se-mantiene-vigente.html
http://www.clarin.com/politica/susto-Gobierno-acelera-compra-avion_0_1631236956.html
https://aerospotter.blogspot.com.ar/2016/08/de-vuelta-al-pago.html
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