At the end of January,
the UK’s foreign secretary Liz Truss came under fire for using vast amounts of taxpayer money
for a trip to Australia. But it’s not the trip itself that’s causing the ruckus;
Rather, it’s the means of transport she took to get there.
Truss chartered the government’s private Airbus A321 for the 22,000-mile flight,
at an estimated cost of a half a million pounds (equivalent to $671,000).
The UK foreign secretary defended her use of the government’s A321LR private jet for her recent
trip to Australia. Although it’s something critics are calling a ‘grotesque misuse’ of public money.
According to the BBC, she insisted that all government decisions are based on the
best value for money, but defended her use of the jet for the trip, saying: “That is why we
have a government plane to enable government ministers to conduct government business."
Officials have further backed her up, saying that commercial flights were heavily booked,
and that sending her commercially would have meant splitting her up from her team and her security
detail. It also said that this sort of travel enabled private discussions on sensitive matters,
essentially allowing her to continue to be productive whilst in transit.
The A321LR, registered G-XATW, is actually operated by Titan Airways on behalf of the
UK government. While it’s a Titan Airways jet, it would seem to be exclusively for the government,
having been delivered with patriotic paintwork in March last year. Its livery is almost a full
copy of the RAF Voyager MRTT, earning it the moniker of ‘baby Boris Force One’.
The lengthy narrowbody trip began in London on January 18th,
when Truss boarded the A321LR at Stansted Airport and began flying south. The jet is configured in a
VIP layout and is therefore capable of flights longer than the standard published range of
4,000nm/7,400km with 206 passengers. However, it’s extended range would be far short of the
massive 22,000-mile distance to Sydney. As such, it made several stops on route.
Six hours after setting off from London, it touched down at Dubai World Central
where it stayed for around an hour. After topping up the fuel, it headed to Malaysia,
landing in Kuala Lumpur at 10:42 the following day. Again, it was a relatively short stop,
taking off once more at just after midday for the almost eight-hour trek to Sydney.
Finally, Truss touched down in Sydney at 07:11 local time.
On January 22nd, Truss was off again, flying the one-hour and 45-minute hop
to Adelaide. Landing at 10:21, it seems she was there for a long all-day meeting,
as her departure was not for more than 12 hours later, at 22:50 in the evening.
The A321LR took the same route back again,
landing in Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, and finally at London Stansted at 13:20 on January 23rd.
While the trip would have involved fewer stops and could possibly have
been more comfortable in the governmental widebody A330, the media would have barked
even louder at the environmental and financial cost of such an excursion.
One has to wonder whether it wouldn’t have been a better use of government resources
(not to mention a better PR move) to just fly first or business with Qantas.
But what do you think? Should the foreign secretary be criticized for
flying the government’s private A321LR to Australia? Let us know by leaving a comment.