New Air Force One Undergoing Interior Upgrades, White House Source Says
The presidential aircraft, a $400 million gift from Qatar, is receiving cosmetic enhancements as former President Trump indicated it would receive security upgrades.
The new Air Force One, a Boeing 747-8 gifted to the U.S. by Qatar, is currently undergoing "cosmetic upgrades" to its interior, an administration source told ABC News on Friday. This development follows previous statements from former President Donald Trump, who had told ABC News that the plane would be sent for "maxed out" security measures this month, a process he estimated would take approximately 60 days.
Trump had described the anticipated upgrades, stating, "It's going to be maxed out. Yeah, it's going to go away and -- to make magnificent plane. Interior wise, the best. Engines, the best. [...] it has a lot of stuff, but to max it out, meaning you can go into any territory, it'll take about 60 days. And it's being sent in October to be maxed out."
The administration source did not specify if security upgrades would be included in the current work, and the White House has not provided details on the project's expected completion date or when the aircraft will return to service. The new plane, valued at $400 million, was a gift from the Qatari royal family, a transaction that has prompted scrutiny from some lawmakers and ethics experts.
Earlier this year, Trump referred to the aircraft, which is about 14 years old, as "the world's most luxurious plane." The exact date the Qatari-gifted jet entered service is unclear, but it was unveiled in June. Its last documented trip was on September 16.
In recent months, Trump has utilized the older Air Force One for domestic travel, including trips to Texas and Oklahoma, Chicago, Tennessee, and the United Nations General Assembly in New York City. Prior to its current interior work, the new plane experienced a minor incident in early September when military personnel accidentally deployed one of its emergency slides before a planned trip to a Republican midterm convention.
If the former president's 60-day timeline for upgrades holds true, the new Air Force One would be unavailable for international travel to the ASEAN Summit in the Philippines and the APEC summit in China, both scheduled for November. Trump has confirmed his intention to attend the APEC summit.
In July, the former president made a secret plane swap while departing the NATO summit in Turkey due to threats from Iran. Sources at the time indicated that the Secret Service had advised Trump to use the older Air Force One as a security precaution. Reports from The New York Times suggested that the new plane lacked the anti-missile capabilities of its predecessor, a factor U.S. officials reportedly considered in the decision. The White House defended the aircraft's safety, with then-communications director Steven Cheung stating in July that the new Air Force One possesses "high-level security protocols" and that "we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats."