New Zealand leader Chris Hipkins heads to China with 2 air force jets, fearing breakdown

Opposition parties said the need to take a second aircraft was an environmental embarrassment to the country and illustrated the poor state of its defence force
New Zealand’s ageing air force fleet has a track record of stranding politicians due to mechanical problems

New Zealand

Bloomberg

Published: 5:45pm, 26 Jun 2023

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New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins took two air force jets with him on a trip to China in case the one he was travelling in broke down.

Hipkins flew to Beijing on Sunday in a Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) Boeing 757, leading a delegation of company executives in the hope of expanding trade with his nation’s biggest export market.

An RNZAF spokesman confirmed a second 757 accompanied the first as far as Manila in the Philippines, acting as a backup in case of any mechanical problems.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force plane sits on the tarmac at Auckland Airport. Photo: AP

Opposition parties said the need to take a second aircraft was an environmental embarrassment to the country and illustrated the poor state of its defence force.

“If we’ve got a climate emergency it doesn’t make a lot of sense to have a second 30-year-old 757 trailing the other one,” Christopher Luxon, leader of the main opposition National Party, told NewstalkZB.

David Seymour, leader of the libertarian ACT Party, claimed the amount of CO2 emitted by the extra plane “would be the equivalent of someone driving a Ford Ranger 606 times the length of New Zealand”.

“Some people might bring a spare phone charger with them while travelling overseas in case they lose one or it breaks. Chris Hipkins needs to bring a spare Boeing aircraft with him,” Seymour said. “New Zealand’s out-of-date air fleet is becoming a source of national embarrassment.”

New Zealand’s ageing air force fleet has a track record of stranding politicians due to mechanical problems.

Last year, then prime minister Jacinda Ardern got stuck on Antarctica when her air force C-130 transport plane broke down. She had to be flown home by an Italian aircraft.

When Ardern visited the US earlier in 2022 to meet President Joe Biden, her Boeing broke down in Washington and she had to leave on a commercial flight instead. Another breakdown last year left Defence Minister Peeni Henare and a 30-strong delegation stuck in the Solomon Islands.

In 2016, then prime minister John Key was stuck in the Australian city of Townsville overnight after the 757 carrying a trade delegation to India broke down. The air force dispatched a second plane, and Key’s group had to shorten its visit to India by a day.