Hungarian Foreign Ministry spent 287 million forints on unused private jets

The Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade has disclosed that approximately 286.9 million forints were spent on private aircraft that were ultimately not used between 2022 and 2026. According to documents released following a data request, these costs were incurred as cancellation penalties when the ministry reserved private jets but opted to travel using Hungarian Defence Forces aircraft instead.

Notable expenditures include 89 million forints for a cancelled private flight to Cairo in September 2024, which was eventually replaced by a military aircraft for a 19-person delegation. A trip to Washington in February also resulted in a 79 million forint cancellation fee, alongside another 25 million forint charge for a separate trip to the same city. Other significant losses include 39 million forints for a cancelled flight to Kyrgyzstan and 32 million forints for a trip to Lebanon.

Over the four-year period, Péter Szijjártó conducted 342 official foreign missions, 276 of which were completed using military aircraft. Private jet rentals for his missions totaled 4.97 billion forints.