Short domestic flights and celebrities on board: how Berset, Maurer and their colleagues use Federal Council planes – Switzerland

German Development Minister Gerd Müller liked to take his wife with him in the government machine. For specialist opposition politicians, however, he had no place on the board. Germany has been debating this for the past few weeks, so it’s time to ask: Who is allowed to fly on the Federal Council jet in Switzerland? “Switzerland at the weekend”, based on the Freedom of Information Act, asked the federal government to provide a list of travel companions for 2019 and 2020. Information from five federal councilors is now available. The most important findings:

The economy is almost always left out

If federal advisers travel abroad, they can open the doors to the Swiss economy there. But a CEO almost never flies on the Federal Council jet. This shows a glance at the guest list for flights. Typically, there are only close staff members, office heads, and management specialists on the plane. Only Finance Minister Ueli Maurer had prominent guests on board: in 2019 he flew from a visit to Abu Dhabi to the King of Saudi Arabia in Riyadh. Blaise Goetschin, director of the Cantonal Bank of Geneva, Thomas Gottstein, now CEO of Credit Suisse, and UBS chief banker Ali Janoudi were on board. Herbert Scheidt, the president of the Bankers Association, was there the entire trip, from Berne via Abu Dhabi to Riyadh and back.

One likes to fly to Ticino from time to time

Weather-damaging regular domestic flights, for example from Zurich to Lugano, should be banned: this was requested by two politicians in 2019. The Federal Council came out against it. Anything else would have been inconsistent. Because federal councilors also use their two jets for domestic flights. Ueli Maurer flew from Bern to Geneva, for example. The SP man, Alain Berset, either flew the Zurich-Geneva route or used the Federal Council plane to return to Bern with his wife on Monday after the Locarno film festival. Due to time constraints, Ticino in particular is frequently served by government aircraft. The Federal Council’s hours are extremely tight. If they had to take their company car to Ticino, they probably wouldn’t be able to keep some appointments there. But most of the planes that Federal Councilors fly to other European countries; to Rome, Vienna or Brussels. It rarely continues, for example, in Tunisia, Washington or Moscow.

Additional support for Karin Keller-Sutter

The intermediate stops need kerosene and are not very weather friendly. However, it occasionally happens that Federal Councilors are allowed to unload closer to the front door (or at the next appointment) before the plane with the rest of the staff returns to the usual location in Bern-Belp. Federal Councilor Guy Parmelin has already been released in Payerne. Intermediate stops occurred multiple times with Karin Keller-Sutter from Eastern Switzerland. He did not get along well in Bern, but at the federally owned military airfield in Dübendorf, closer to where he lives in Wil (SG). It even happened that Keller-Sutter’s communications chief, personal assistant, and his secretary of state were transferred from Bern to Dübendorf on a Pilatus PC 24. There, Keller-Sutter and one other person were transferred to an Air Force Bombardier plane. to fly to Berlin. On the return flight, the three people had another special flight to Bern from Dübendorf. The aircraft change was made for capacity reasons, says the Keller-Sutters Department. Meetings are more possible on the larger machine.

However, it should also be noted: Keller-Sutter uses the Federal Council jet very rarely compared to other Federal Councilors. Compared to the Minister of Justice, a frequent traveler is his Secretary of State for Migration, Mario Gattiker. In the past two years, he has sat on the Bundesrat jet much more often than his boss.

There are almost no party mates on board

Parliamentarians are almost never present when federal councilors travel by plane. Only Guy Parmelin took his party friend and fellow farmer, SVP National Councilor Marcel Dettling, with him when he flew to an international agricultural fair in Berlin in January 2020. Several employees of the Federal Office for Agriculture were also present in Berlin , but not with them on the Bundesrat jet. The federal government paid for their scheduled flights because they arrived earlier or stayed longer in Berlin than their boss. Dettling had been invited by the Minister of Agriculture as a member of the Economic Commission, explains the Department of Parmelins. Another commissioner was also invited, but was unable to attend.

Good photos never hurt

Alain Berset has no problem standing in front of a camera. On the contrary. The blockade made it clear that the Interior Minister likes to show himself. In Berset, a photographer from a photo agency was on board twice in the last two years when the SP man traveled abroad. In May 2019, Berset was visiting the Central African Republic. Berset in the hospital, during conversations with members of the government: That was photographed for the Swiss audience, after all, the visit also drew attention to medical care in crisis areas. There was also an important date in the Corona year that he could not miss: At the end of February, an agency photographer traveled with him when Berset met with the health ministers of Germany, France, Austria and Italy in Rome.

In 2019/20 the Federal Councilors traveled in three models of airplanes: a Falcon 900 and a Cessna Citation Excel were the official jets of the Federal Council for years. A Swiss model has also been in operation since 2019, a Pilatus PC 24. In total, Federal Councilors spent 554 hours in the air in 2019, significantly less than in 2018 (788 hours), most often by the Foreign Minister. With the crown crisis, the number of flights should be significantly less again in 2020.