Sipila does it on the fly
– While celebrities like John Travolta and Tom Cruise are known for piloting their own planes, few world leaders fly themselves on state business, but Finland’s Prime Minister Juha Sipila is one.
A keen aviator and committed to austerity – and saving taxpayers’ money – Sipila occasionally pilots a private jet on his official travels, and foots the bill himself to boot.
Since taking office in May 2015, the money-conscious former businessman has flown himself on 19 official trips in Finland and abroad.
Last year Sipila, 55, flew over 5 000km from Finland to the Mongolian capital Ulan Bator for an Asia-Europe meeting, and some 1 400km to meet fellow EU leaders in Bratislava.
The softly-spoken engineer earned millions as an IT entrepreneur before entering politics to become Finland’s prime minister in 2015.
He has vowed to “fix Finland” and put the eurozone member’s economy back on track – and he appears to practise what he preaches.
He doesn’t own the planes he flies, but rather rents them at his own expense. For the Ulan Bator trip he was at the controls of a Cessna 525 business jet, which seats between six and seven passengers.
His office said it did not know the cost of the flights paid for privately by Sipila, but the Finnish weekly Suomen Kuvalehti estimated the expense at “hundreds of thousands of euros”.
There is a related health issue: before taking office Sipila suffered from two sudden pulmonary embolisms, in 2013 and 2014.
This led Finnish media to speculate about the safety concerns raised by having the prime minister pilot a plane on official visits, often with his aides on board.
Sipila has reportedly fully recovered, and officials say they are not worried. – AFP
Helsinki
Alle a
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