I never thought that one day I would be intrigued by aircraft, but Viktor Orbán’s cat and mouse games with the so-called “military” airplanes piqued my interest. I have already covered the purchase of two Airbus A319s, which, as far as I can ascertain, are ordinary passenger planes that can seat between 124 and 156 people, depending on the interior configuration. So far two opposition members of parliament have tried to take a peek at these planes but were rebuffed, even though one of them is a member of the parliamentary committee on the armed forces. In my opinion, it is possible that one of the two alleged transport planes has been transformed into a quasi-luxury plane to carry larger government delegations, as was the case with Viktor Orbán’s trip to Tel Aviv. That would explain the need to purchase two at the same time.
The Hungarian military doesn’t really need two transport planes. To upgrade their military readiness they need gunships, heavily armed ground-
What escaped my attention was that the armed forces also acquired another aircraft, a Dassault Falcon 7X, whose purchase price new is $35 million. The Falcon is a luxury business jet that seats 16-17 people comfortably. In March 2018 Magyar Nemzet learned that the government was contemplating the purchase of not one but two Falcon 7Xs. For the time being there is no sign of a second plane, but who knows given Viktor Orbán’s penchant for luxury. According to Magyar Nemzet, Sándor Csányi, Hungary’s richest businessman, used to own the same model aircraft, which he often loaned to the government, i.e., to Viktor Orbán. For a while there were plans to purchase Csányi’s plane, which he wanted to sell so he could buy a newer model. However, the plane the government eventually purchased was from another source.
The grey paint that was applied to this handsome aircraft took a lot away from the plane’s looks, but it had to be done in order to give the impression that this luxury jet is actually being used for military purposes. Now, even if perhaps not officially, the Hungarian government has three different aircraft it can use. But so far not even Viktor Orbán dares to commandeer them to attend football matches all over Europe. Instead, he relies on his friends, whose private luxury jets can be used for such occasions.
The arrival of the Dassault FalconX in August
When Átlátszó, a group of devoted investigative journalists, uncovered the story of Viktor Orbán’s gallivanting all over Europe on businessmen’s planes to satisfy his insatiable appetite for football, the reaction was understandably one of outrage. Unfortunately for Orbán, the appearance of the article coincided with Orbán’s compulsory personal appearance in parliament, which meant that opposition politicians could address direct questions to the prime minister. There he announced that in the last 30 years he had traveled to football matches this way and that he would continue to do so in the future. And indeed, he was spotted at the Videoton-AEK game in Athens on August 22 and on October 4 at the Chelsea-Videoton game. It is the October trip that I would like to call attention to here and pose a few questions for discussion.
This time Viktor Orbán and his entourage used not one but two private jets to watch the Videoton-Chelsea game. One was Csányi’s new Falcon 900LX and the other was a Bombardier Global 2000, which some people think belongs to Lőrinc Mészáros. Apparently, Orbán was on Csányi’s aircraft, which interestingly went to London in a “somewhat” roundabout way. Csányi’s plane left Budapest very early in the morning and first went to Moscow, where it spent two hours on the ground at the Seremetyevo International Airport.
What a strange detour and, let me add, what a suspicious one. Some observers, not without reason, suspect that Viktor Orbán had a meeting with some top Russian government official. One can easily arrange such a meeting in the VIP waiting area. It is highly unlikely that Sándor Csányi had an urgent business meeting in Moscow since, as far as we know, his business interests have nothing to do with Russia. Független Hírügynökség (FüHü), which first came up with the hypothesis on October 12, is waiting for a denial from the prime minister’s office. People should realize that nothing can be kept a secret nowadays, but the truth is that Viktor Orbán no longer cares. No one can touch him.