Shower, office and private lounge… Angela Merkel’s former Airbus sold by German government for one million euros

For sale, used Airbus A340, with shower and office. This little ad that’s out of the ordinary may belong to the German government, which in November put up for sale a plane used for many years by Chancellor Angela Merkel and her successor, Olaf Scholz. German weekly Der Spiegel says the aircraft was thus sold to airline Lufthansa.

Built in 1999 and used by the German state since 2011, the plane was not put into storage until the summer of 2023, after technical problems prevented Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock from traveling to Oceania. It was bought by the government in the early 2010s after being used by the airline Lufthansa for about ten years.

Shower room, office and private lounge

The aircraft then underwent significant work to make it an official aircraft, with a special layout, detailed in the sales sheet. With an original capacity of 300 passengers, it was increased to just over 100, with the establishment of a private lounge, an office, a meeting room, a meeting room, shower, as well as a business class equipped with 24 seats. Nicknamed “Merkel One” in reference to the German chancellor and American president’s plane nickname, it eventually had 92 seats in economy class.

The German government now uses Airbus A350s and has planned the resale of the aircraft through a dedicated agency, via auction under sealed cover. It was the company’s subsidiary Lufthansa Technik, which won the auction with an offer of one million euros, a company spokesperson confirmed to the German weekly. The company wants to dismantle the plane and sell the spare parts. According to Lufthansa, the engines, in particular, “are still considered to be of high quality, even after the aircraft has been in service for well over twenty years.”