Foreign Minister once again chose military aircraft instead of commercial flight

Early in the morning on July 15, an Airbus A319 aircraft of the Brussels Airlines took off from Budapest to Brussels. At the same time, the Hungarian foreign minister also flew to Brussels on a separate, but identical plane, the Hungarian Armed Forces’ Airbus, even though the relevant law instructs politicians to use commercial flights to save costs.

In the past 10 years (!), Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has never (!) traveled on scheduled flights for official business, instead always reaching his destinations in chartered luxury aircraft or military aircraft. Although the government decree regulating the allowances of state leaders generally allows ministers to travel by scheduled flights, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, may, if necessary, authorize chartered flights for himself or, under another law, travel on military aircraft as a person receiving permanent personal protection.

The most recent trip to Brussels could have been feasible with a cost-effective commercial flight, yet the travel organizers did not choose this solution.

As usual, the foreign minister’s communications team reported on the official trip on Szijjártó’s social media pages and posted photos from the airport moments before departure. This showed approximately when Szijjártó was preparing for takeoff, and the ADS-B Exchange website identified the military aircraft he was traveling on and the exact time of takeoff.

Viktor Singer, our reader who has been documenting the Hungarian foreign minister’s air travel for years, checked the list of scheduled flights to Brussels. It revealed that

the Brussels Airlines’ Airbus A139 (OO-SSS) took off from Budapest at almost the same time as the military Airbus A139 (605) carrying the foreign minister.

The above is confirmed by the route data we checked. The timestamps on the route maps clearly show that the two aircraft flew the Budapest-Brussels route at almost the same time.

The military aircraft and the scheduled flight near Frankfurt, heading towards Brussels on July 15, 2025 (source: ADS-B Exchange)

We also reviewed the morning traffic at Liszt Ferenc International Airport using the ADS-B Exchange website. It shows that the military aircraft took off first at 6:44 a.m., followed by two other passenger planes, and then the Brussels Airlines flight, which took off at 6:49 a.m., just five minutes after the military aircraft.

The two identical Airbus A319 aircraft flew at a similar speed, so the few minutes difference at takeoff remained the same at the end of the journey. Thus, the two planes landed in Brussels at exactly 7 minutes apart, at 8:33 and 8:40 a.m., respectively.

There were also scheduled flights on the way home

On the return journey, several flights could have been considered for Péter Szijjártó and his delegation, based on the departure time of the military aircraft.

One of these was the Brussels Airlines flight departing at 3:10 p.m., which, according to the schedule, would have departed for Budapest 45 minutes earlier than the military aircraft took off.

The meeting of EU foreign ministers had definitely ended by 1:30 p.m. at the latest, as Szijjártó began a press conference at 1:36 p.m., while broadcasting live. The 29-minute “live broadcast” ended five minutes after 2 p.m., giving Szijjártó and his delegation one hour to get to the airport and board their scheduled flight.

According to Google Maps, the 12 km distance can be covered in about 20-30 minutes in this time slot, so the minister could have even made it to the 3:10 p.m. scheduled flight. However, as we felt this solution was a bit rushed, we searched for and found later flights.

The closest in terms of time was the 4:30 p.m. Wizz Air flight, which would have flown the minister and his small delegation home half an hour after the military plane took off—35 minutes later, to be exact.

But the Szijjártó team could have flown home even later, as Ryanair had an evening flight from Brussels to Budapest at 8:50 p.m. that day.

The delegation could have caught this flight even if the council meeting had been delayed.

We know from Péter Szijjártó’s social media page that the minister had no other official engagements that day that would have required him to travel home quickly and justified the use of a military aircraft.

We did not receive answers to our questions

Before publishing our article, we contacted the press department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade with our questions. We asked why a military aircraft was used for Péter Szijjártó’s trip to Brussels, given that the trip could have been made on a scheduled flight, as it was a well-known and planned event.

We also wanted to know whether the staff of M1, Kossuth Radio, and HírTV were also transported from Budapest to Brussels and back by military aircraft. Unfortunately, in line with government practice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not respond to any of our questions.