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SINCE 1819
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Foreign Secretary Liz Truss’s flight in the Government’s £75m private jet from Stansted Airport to Australia – at an estimated cost of £500,000 and 500 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) – has been downplayed by climate campaigners.
Brian Ross, chairman of Stansted Airport Watch (SAW), said her 22,000-mile journey to Sydney on January 18, and other flights by ministers, were not significant compared to overall traffic at Manchester Airports Group’s Uttlesford base.
It is understood that on November 22 last year, Boris Johnson flew from Stansted to Newcastle to address a CBI conference and last Thursday (Jan 27) the Prime Minister flew from the airport to Anglesey in Wales.
Mr Ross said: “In the context of Stansted being permitted to handle 274,000 flights a year, we won’t lose much sleep (literally) about the Government having one private jet based at Stansted for occasional use. We all recognise that Government ministers need to use private jets from time to time. Importantly, the Government is committed to reducing its own air travel.”
SAW was launched in May 2021 as the successor to Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE), which was established in 2002 in response to Government proposals for expanding Stansted.
The rebrand was to reflect “the need will be to ensure that the airport’s authorised operations cause as little harm as possible and, wherever possible, are managed so as to reduce harm”. In particular, the campaigners maintain “the UK will not be able to meet its statutory target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 unless aviation emissions are brought under control”.
Uttlesford district councillor for Stansted North Alan Dean disagreed with Mr Ross’s relaxed stance.
The Liberal Democrat said: “I have a sticker in my front window saying ‘FLY LESS’. That’s aimed at cutting our carbon footprints. Liz Truss’s trip was both costly in climate-changing carbon and wasteful of taxpayers’ money. I look forward to the day when we have Government ministers who behave like the people for whom they set the rules instead of acting like oligarchs from another world.”
Travel writer Simon Calder analysed Ms Truss’s trip aboard Airbus A321, which is believed to be operated by Titan Airways, specialists in bespoke air charter travel at Stansted, and suggested that instead of burning 150 tonnes of fuel in the private jet, she could have bought a business-class ticket on a Qantas Boeing 787 service for £7,712.
A Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office spokesman told the Indie: “It’s necessary for the Foreign Secretary to travel abroad to pursue UK interests around security, trade and technology, as she did during this visit to Australia. Travelling this way allows ministers to have private discussions on sensitive security matters and flexibility to respond to rapidly changing global events.”
“This trip used Government transport and was fully within rules.”
An A330, operated by the Royal Air Force, is also available for ministerial use.
Titan Airways did not respond to the Indie‘s request for a statement.
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