Police have said they have started the process to sell off an aircraft they bought for shs28billion in 2019.
The nine seater 5X-PEF/PI80 Piaggio Avanti II Evo was acquired by the police in 2019 to offer transport services to especially VIPs to various places including inside and outside the country.
The police have however said they decided to dispose it of after failure to meet the expectations in terms of clients.
“Since its acquisition, it has only covered a total flying time of 117 hours, because it is not designed for non-tarmacked runways, undergoes expensive mandatory inspections, insurance and AMO with no benefits realised. In addition, the Aircraft parts are very expensive given the nature and category of luxury,” police spokesperson, Fred Enanga said on Friday.
The police said after the Minister of Internal Affairs giving a greenlight to the sale, a board of survey in October 2022 inspected the aircraft and valued it at $4.2 million approximately shs16.3 billion.
Enanga said the value includes depreciated replacement cost valuation, technical condition, based valuation, Blue book values, current marketing running prices, a minimum of $100,681.79 to replace expired parts and it being the only aircraft on the African continent.
The Italian made 5X-PEF/PI80 Piaggio Avanti II Evo is a pressurised, twin-engine, three lifting surfaces, pusher propellers and turbine-powered aircraft.
The aircraft is designed to provide jet-like speed on turboprop fuel flows, as well as the spaciousness and comfort of a wide-body, stand-up cabin.
The fuel system has a total fuel capacity of 421.9 U.S. gallons with a usable fuel of 418.1 U.S. gallons (2,802 lbs, 1,583 litres).
Each engine is fed by its own fuel system made up of four interconnected tanks: an integral fuselage tank just above the wing, a wet-wing tank, one fuselage under-wing collector tank and one auxiliary collector tank also located in the fuselage below the wing.