Supreme directives, issued in 2005, said only ministers traveling outside the Kingdom for official missions under extreme necessity should request the aircraft of the royal fleet. For this, a request stating the justifications should be made in advance to the authorities concerned and it should be accompanied by sufficient proof that the flight was not available via Saudia or any other airlines.
To have ministers and senior officials using special airplanes, while commercial flights were available “was against the standing orders to reduce costs and rationalize spending,” the directives said.
The supreme authorities asked all government departments to use their own budget to pay for the travel costs of their personnel on the national carrier.
