Germany’s Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said the Ministry of Defense will be replacing its “ageing” long-range government planes. The country will purchase a new Airbus A350 later this year, with two other jets to follow. In the past four months planes from Germany’s Special Air Mission, which shuttles officials to meetings around the world, have been grounded various times. The announcement, made on Friday, followed on from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s embarrassing gaffe in December when she missed the start of a Buenos Aires summit of G20 global leaders after a radio failure made her government jet turn around mid-flight.
Ms Merkel was forced to land in Cologne and flew to Argentina the following day on a commercial flight.
Other incidents include President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and Development Minister Gerd Müller all being stranded.
Mr Steinmeier, who was stuck in Ethiopia this week, has suffered the grounding of his flight three times since November as a result of the faulty planes.
Mr Müller was extremely vocal over the ongoing issue.
In January, he was stranded in Malawi after another government jet broke down.
He said such embarrassing breakdowns were ruining Germany’s reputation as a high-tech nation and were damaging the “Made in Germany” brand.
Germany currently operates two ageing second-hand A340s, which are no longer made, as well as some smaller aircraft.
But the Ministry of Defense now plans to purchase three new Airbus A350 planes directly from the manufacturer.
A350 costs around £158million.
This includes sleeping quarters, a conference room, a security system and communications equipment.
This costs around £88million extra.