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BIRN: Here's who covered Rama's private jet trip to The Hague airport

Politiko 2025-06-27 20:40:58

BIRN: Here's who covered Rama's private jet trip to The Hague airport

A short video published by Dosja.al on June 26 showed Prime Minister Edi Rama disembarking from a private jet at The Hague airport during his trip to the NATO Summit. The plane was different from the government one that Rama has usually used on his official trips in recent years and belonged to the type “Gulfstream Aerospace G-IVSP” with the registration “TC-EMR”, raising new questions about the costs.

Asked by BIRN how much the government had spent on Rama's trip to The Hague, the Media and Information Agency stated that this trip was also covered by the framework agreement that the Prime Minister's Office has with the private company, Air Albania.

"The Prime Minister's Office has never paid and does not pay for charters, but has a framework agreement with the Air Albania company, in an average annual amount of the Prime Minister's annual expenses in previous years," MIA said in a written response.

"The reason for receiving different aircraft from Air Albania is related to the periods when the government aircraft ALBANIA is under technical maintenance. And in these cases it is Air Albania that takes measures, making other aircraft available," the response added.

Prime Minister Edi Rama's charter trips have been part of the political debate for years due to a controversial agreement with Air Albania and unclear costs.

At least since 2020, the Prime Minister's travel expenses abroad are covered by the Directorate of Government Services, which has entered into an agreement with the company 'Air Albania' to lease an 'Airbus A319-100' aircraft. The 'Vip' configuration aircraft can accommodate up to 32 passengers.

According to data previously made public by the Directorate of Government Services, the latter is billed by Air Albania for 25 flight hours per year and the rest "the service recipient benefits from at zero rate."

The Directorate of Government Services also claims to pay approximately 2,450 euros per hour of the prime minister's flight, or six times less than the average market value for a charter flight. Reporter.al

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