Bundeswehr flights: Scholz and Co. fly to appointments so often

The government of Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has used the Bundeswehr aircraft and helicopters 1,822 times for business purposes since taking office three years ago. The Chancellery with 611 flights between the swearing-in of the cabinet in December 2021 to the end of last year is the leader, as can be seen from a response from the Ministry of Defense to a request from BSW MP Sevim Dagdelen, which is available to the German Press Agency.

This is followed by the Federal Foreign Office (363), the Ministry of Defense (168) and the Ministry of the Interior (155 flights).

The Bundeswehr’s so -called flight readiness is currently available 15 aircraft of different sizes and equipment as well as two helicopters. For his trips abroad, the Chancellor usually uses one of three Airbus A350 aircraft with a length of 67 meters and a range of 18,000 kilometers.

Since the willingness to fly in Cologne-Wahn is stationed, empty flights often fall to bring the machines to the departure location-mostly Berlin. For the Federal Government’s 1,822 government flights by December 31, there were about as many empty flights with 1,807. According to the Ministry of Defense, however, they are used for training and further education.

The BSW MP Dagdelen accused the Federal Government “Double Bill”. She preaches to the citizens “while at the expense of taxpayers and at the expense of the environment, they take advantage of the willingness to fly for comfortable business trips with expensive empty flights,” she said.

According to parliamentary inquiries, former answers from the federal government are relatively rare for cabinet members. The reason for this is that the planning effort is much larger. From Berlin there are also relatively few direct flights abroad compared to other capital airports such as London or Paris.