While Spainards are being told to eat less meat and more lentils due to high inflation, Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has cut both plant-based foods from the menu on his official airplane, adding more meat—at higher cost.
The Spanish newspaper El Confidencial reports that the Ministry of Defense just released a competitive tendering call to supply the catering onboard the Falcons, the small aircraft fleet used by the government and the royal family to travel on official business, when flying is deemed necessary.
The proposed budget for 2024’s catering expenses is around €2 million, up from the €1.2 million earmarked for 2023, representing a 66% increase.
Not only does the increase far exceed inflation but, according to the newspaper, the government’s proposed menu for this year does not include lentils or tofu, two previous staple purchases. It does, however, ask for higher quantities of the best quality Iberian ham—Spain’s national delicacy. Available in various classifications with a corresponding price difference, the highest caliber ham requested can fetch around €135 a kilo.
The newspaper recalls that in 2014, the catering budget for the government’s official planes was €300,000. Back then, adding wine and whisky to the in-flight pantry caused controversy.
Sánchez’s misuse of the official plane has characterized his tenure as prime minister since 2018. The most recent—and perhaps egregious example—was an eight-minute flight on Saturday, December 10.
Sánchez has defied requests by both journalists and parliament for detailed information on his use of official aircraft, but a citizen journalist established the website Falcon Despliega to track their movements. According to the website, Sánchez’s plane took off from Madrid’s Torrejón de Ardoz airport at 8:42 a.m., and landed in La Coruña on the shores of Galicia at 9:32 a.m. The distance between the two cities is 587 kilometers.
From there, Sánchez—together with Vice President María Jesús Montero—traveled to Ferrol, a new digital block factory on the site of the Navantia shipyard.
However, Sánchez then took the plane to a rally of his socialist party in nearby Santiago de Compostela. The two cities are 72 kilometers apart. The flight lasted eight minutes and 37 seconds. A train ride of 30 minutes also connects the cities. By car, the trip between the two is about 45 minutes. After the event Sánchez hopped back onto the plane to return to Madrid.
According to official sources, the cost of an hour of flight in the presidential Falcon amounts to around €5,600.
Sánchez cited security reasons for taking the short flight, but it’s unlikely that organizing a car and train trip was impossible—or that it would have been more expensive.
