President George Vella’s 3-Day Trip To The Queen’s Funeral Cost Malta €60,000
Outgoing President George Vella’s attendance at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II cost the island at least €60,000 Malta Files revealed yesterday.
Vella spent an exorbitant €30,350 on a private jet to get there, as well as another €30,000 on his stay at the Corinthia Hotel for the three-day stay.
Malta Files acquired this information after submitting a Freedom of Information request, prompting other local newsrooms to cover the cost of his attendance.
An invoice issued by The Corinthia further billed the government for the “incorrect dates”, writing that the President checked out on 29th September as opposed to the 20th outlined in his itinerary.
This triggered a reply from the Office of the President explaining the costs:
- It is confirmed that The President of Malta and accompanying delegation stayed at Corinthia London between 17 September 2022 and 20 September 2022 respectively and the invoice billing details have been certified correct per individual occupant with the daily room rate tallying with the quoted room rate and for the aforementioned dates. It is however an error on the part of Corinthia London to quote arrival on 16 September 2022 and departure on 29 September 2022.
- On 17th September 2022, The President of Malta travelled with a private jet on the outbound to London to attend HM Queen Elizabeth’s funeral as direct flights were full-up and the available connection flights were not a valid option to allow the President to arrive in time to be able to attend the funeral. With regards to the inbound flight from London, The President of Malta returned to Malta with an Air Malta flight on 20th September 2022.
This essentially means that the government paid €10,000 a night for the President’s stay, most likely in one of the luxury hotel’s penthouses.
At the time of the funeral, world leaders had been asked to arrive via commercial flights, Politico revealed in September 2022.
The public interest website further reported that 18 Air Malta tickets from London Heathrow to Malta International Airport were purchased for the cost of around €8,500. Around five of these were cancelled and a refund of around €2,000 was issued.
The Air Malta flights from the UK to Malta were over €6,000 while travel insurance from Mib for €275.
Vella flew on a Challenger 605 from Malta to Farnborough airport on 17th September in time for the state funeral on the 19th, invoices issued by dBB Aviation show.
Are you shocked at the overall cost of the President’s trip?
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