Politicians are known for enjoying the benefits that work gives them. One of them is traveling with public money, especially with the most expensive means of transport. How does the Prime Minister of the Polish government fare in this respect? “Fakt” asked the Prime Minister's Office for a list of flights. Here are the key statistics:
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Where does Prime Minister Donald Tusk fly?
These are data on domestic flights on planes chartered from PLL LOT and some of the HEAD status flights. The Prime Minister and his delegation used such special-status flights 13 times.
Where does Donald Tusk fly? WP notes that on the list the Warsaw-Rzeszów, Warsaw-Wrocław and Warsaw-Kraków routes dominate.
See also: Senators “flew” over PLN 1.6 million. Their destinations may be surprising
Interestingly, the route to his hometown of Gdańsk is recorded only three times. Data published by “Fakt” in 2012 showed that Donald Tusk used a government plane on the Warsaw-Gdańsk route as many as 50 times a year.
Prime Minister Donald Tusk's flights with HEAD status
What are the previously mentioned HEAD flights? In aviation, it is a term for flights that have the highest operational priority and are treated as the most important at a given moment, it means that such flights have priority in air traffic, air traffic control must ensure that they take off, fly and land as quickly as possible.
HEAD status may apply to military, government, rescue or other critical missions. In practice, this means that aircraft or helicopters with this status may have privileged access to runways, airways and control services to ensure safety and efficient execution of the task. Often such status is used in emergency situations, during VIP transport, rescue operations or military operations, and the decision to grant the HEAD status depends on the relevant aviation authorities or operational command and involves the rapid transfer of information to all services involved in flight.
Astronomical amounts for MPs' flights
Earlier media reports indicated that the total cost of air travel for members of this term of the Sejm is already PLN 13.7 million. Parliamentarians held over 17,000 flights only within the country.
The top politicians who traveled the most include Robert Dowhan and Jacek Karnowski from KO, as well as Łukasz Mezja from PiS.
For each such trip in 2024, the carrier received PLN 735 from the state budget. This year, the amount is PLN 151 higher.
