“The immediate start of the process for the sale of the presidential plane LEGACY EMB-135 BJ is hereby ordered (…) Authorize the direct sale of the plane (…) as well as its departure from the country,” states the respective executive decree made public on Tuesday night.

In the decree, the President justifies the sale due to the existence of two presidential aircraft, “whose maintenance and operation costs are inconvenient for the country.”

Additionally, he argues that in order to rationalize public spending and balance the state budget, it is necessary to sell unproductive assets or those whose preservation is inefficient or unnecessary.

The decree stipulates that while the sales process is underway, the use of the plane shall be restricted only to exceptional situations to be determined by the General Administrative Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic.

The plane was acquired by the Correa government in 2008 and was used to transport the then-president and his official delegations within Ecuador and Latin America, while the other plane, a French Falcon, was used for trips to Europe and Asia.