Mexico City - In response to a recent request for information, the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) reported that the new presidential plane will arrive in Mexico before the end of the year.

Considered the most expensive presidential plane in the world, the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner was delivered to the Santa Lucia military air base near Mexico City on October 9, 2014. After Mexico accepted formal delivery of the aircraft, it immediately took off for the United States to be equipped and prepared for the use of President Enrique Peña Nieto.

The federal agency said that the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is now 80 percent outfitted and that the aircraft is expected to be delivered, along with the new Presidential Hangar at the Mexico City airport, on December 18, 2015.

The new aircraft, for the exclusive use of the Federal Chief Executive and his team, cost - according to data released at the beginning of the project - roughly $580 million dollars.

The cost of the aircraft has sparked controversy in various sectors of the country since 2012, when President Felipe Calderón began purchasing negotiations with Boeing. Calderón's justification for the expense was that two members of the Interior Secretariat had died in plane crashes, Juan Camilo Mouriño [2008] and Francisco Blake Mora [2011], thus having a more modern aircraft for the President was a matter "national security."

The project for the acquisition, which was presented by the Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) to the Secretariat of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) at that time, notes that the lease for purchase included annual payments over 25 years.

The current presidential plane is a Boeing 757 which was acquired in 1987. It has a private cabin with 26 executive-class seats and a capacity for 66 passengers. In addition, Peña Nieto utilizes a 1989 TP-02, another Boeing with capacity for 68 passengers. Both aircraft have to a stop to refuel on transatlantic flights.

The new Boeing 787-9 jet can carry up to 280 passengers at a speed of nearly a thousand miles per hour. It features twin aisles, larger windows, cleaner air with higher humidity, and is capable of making the New York-Athens or Tokyo-Los Angeles routes without stop-overs.

President Peña Nieto is expected to debut the plane in January 2016 during a working trip to Switzerland and some countries in Asia.