Prime minister David Cameron chooses FR

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

The world is changing.. prime minister of the UK travelled to Lanzarote with his wife Samantha on Ryanair !

Guess he has some Scottish blood ..

Don't see Hollande nor Merkel doing the same... Nor our own king !

What a slap in the face for the British Airlines, BA,Monarch,Thomson,Thomas Cook or even Jet2 ...

Ahum...

CXB

[sean1982]

Maybe not the king, but our prime minister and other ministers fly FR often!

[sdbelgium]

Members of the Spanish royal family have been spotted on Ryanair aircraft before, and it is a known fact that the Belgian Princess Astrid has chased to fly Ryanair in order to get to their Italian holiday spot in a convenient way (without stopovers).

As a side note, I saw a famous Flemish singer and his family getting on the morning BRU-ALC flight a few days ago (he was the Belgian representative for Eurovision a few years ago and competed in various television entertainment shows as well).

[sean1982]

if you mean Sergio, then yes, he is a regular

[Boeing767copilot]

And former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt as well.

[appel]

Even the ceo of Norwegian was spotted on a ryanair plane a few days ago

[quixoticguide]

Even the ceo of Norwegian was spotted on a ryanair plane a few days ago

On study tour?

[appel]

don't know,
he wasn't on my flight

[Air Key West]

The world is changing.. prime minister of the UK travelled to Lanzarote with his wife Samantha on Ryanair !

Don't see Hollande nor Merkel doing the same... Nor our own king !

On two occasions I saw Prince Philippe and Princess Mathilde, as well as Princess Mathilde and Princess Elisabeth on Brussels Airlines flights to/from Nice.

(my contribution to "Royalty" and "Place Royale")

[sean1982]

But the question is: is it "ok" for ministers, members of State, etc... to fly an LCC or should they only use their "national" airline?

[cnc]

depends, if its for official traveling then they should use either state owned aircraft or the national airline, for private fun why not?
besides lets take the netherlands, what if they would use transavia? its part of KLM.

[quixoticguide]

It's cheaper for the taxpayers to take a commercial airline then a private/military jet.

[cnc]

It's cheaper for the taxpayers to take a commercial airline then a private/military jet.

yea unless its a big delegation it will be

[Inquirer]

As far as our country is concerned, I am pretty sure that I read once that the rule is that our King ALWAYS has to fly on the Air Force, or similar (like when Baudouin visiting Japan on a chartered Sabena 747 so many years ago).
As to other officials, whenever they have to fly for work so to say, they seem to be flying either on the Air Force jets too or alternatively fly commercially, yet with a soft moral obligation to fly Belgian whenever practically possible.
What they do privately is as the word says, a private matter, as they are then spending their own money of course, so honestly I don't know if there's any news to this?
It's in the same league as Cameron driving a German car, or Cameron using an France Telecom aka Orange sim card for his personal mobile, or worse Cameron wearing Borg underwear! Tabloids in the UK, you gotta love them, don't you?

[Boavida]

Hi,

The world is changing.. prime minister of the UK travelled to Lanzarote with his wife Samantha on Ryanair !

Guess he has some Scottish blood ..

What has the Scottish blood to do with it, if I may ask?

[b-west]

He has Scottish blood... as well as Welsh and English, or so he claims himself.

I'm just wondering if this isn't just a well planned publicity move. Cameron comes from the British upper class, studied at Eton and Oxford and is still perceived by many as an elitist. Showing the folks who read the Mail and other tabloids that he travels just like them might very well be an attempt to change this stiff upper lip image.

I would have opted to fly Easyjet though, at least like that he would be shown as to fly like the common folk and supporting British companies. Oh well...

[Air Key West]

It's cheaper for the taxpayers to take a commercial airline then a private/military jet.

VIPP (very important political persons) will fly their country's military/airforce/official aircraft mainly for security reasons. It's easier to ensure the security of these people on official aircraft than on commercial aircraft.

I wonder how the security of these politicians is organised when they travel on commercial aircraft for private reasons. A Prime Minister and other important politicians get 24/7 security.

I presume that, when traveling for private reasons, they choose the airline that offers a nonstop connection, be it a network carrier or a LCC.

LCCs, and FR in particular, are well known for flying to places other airlines don't fly to and which may be very close to the place these people want to go to.

As a taxi driver said to me recently when driving me to the airport : "my wife and I fly Ryanair once a year because they are the only airline to offer a direct flight to the airport in Italy which is only 20km from where my wife's family live ; the flight is horrible, but it is convenient" (end of quotation).

To be fair, I must add that a very close friend of mine who travels on a regular basis between Brussels and Faro doesn't find Ryanair's flights "horrible". He says they are absolutely OK. You don't discuss "des goûts et des couleurs..."

[sean1982]

The question is: was it really horrible or was it horrible because that's what your expectations are when flying an LCC? Just like the food from LIDL is perceived to be inferior, but when a michelin star chef cooks a meal with it no one realises they are eating "inferior" food.

[Stij]

Good afternoon!

Most of my Belgian politicians / celebrity spottings were on Bru Air, but I know Walloon ministers have flown FR on duty between CRL and BGY.

While on the subject: most of the celebrities (3 spottings) behaved badly: they refused to sit on their assigned seats up to the moment cabin crew warned them they would be thrown off the plane. All of the politicians were very quiet and humble.

Cheers,

Stij

[sean1982]

Stij!!

You're back and a moderator! Couldnt be more happy! Congratz!