Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has flown directly from the NATO summit in Ankara to London on a military Airbus A310, where one of his daughters was due to graduate from a private university.
The aircraft left the Turkish capital late in the afternoon of July 8 and landed at Heathrow airport shortly before 9pm Spanish time, according to flight-tracking record. The flight lasted a little under four hours.
The A310 is the largest aircraft in the Spanish air force’s VIP fleet and is fitted out to carry about 80 passengers. It had brought Sánchez to Ankara for the two-day gathering of alliance leaders on July 7.
Defence Minister Margarita Robles and Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares travelled separately, returning to Madrid on Dassault Falcon 900 jets while the Airbus turned north towards Britain. The Spanish Government deployed three military aircraft in total for the summit, one of them held in reserve.
The estimated cost of the Ankara-London leg is €18,253. Then the combined bill for the outward and return journeys of the three aircraft at €74,822. It calculated the carbon footprint of the Prime Minister’s flight at 46 tonnes of carbon dioxide, against 14 tonnes for both ministerial jets together.
The official government agenda published by the Moncloa palace for July 9 listed no engagements for Sánchez, in Britain or anywhere else. Robles and Albares were both scheduled to appear at public events in Madrid.
Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, travelled to London separately after a court intervened. Judge Juan Carlos Peinado withdrew her passport in June over what he described as a flight risk, and she is awaiting trial on charges that include influence peddling, corruption in business, embezzlement and misappropriation.
A substitute magistrate, Antonio Viejo, ruled on July 6 that Gómez could travel to Britain between July 8 and 10 for the graduation but could not accompany her husband to Ankara, on the grounds that Turkey lies outside the European Union’s area of freedom, security and justice.
Elías Bendodo, deputy secretary of the People’s Party, said the case was damaging Spain’s international standing and reducing its institutions to spectators. He called the refusal to allow Gómez to attend the summit an absurdity, while urging respect for judicial rulings.
Commentators noted that the graduation took place at a private London institution weeks after Sánchez had attacked regional funding for private universities in Madrid.
