The new Danish ministers – and perhaps also some of the members of the Greenlandic government – can look forward to being flown abroad when important agreements have to be negotiated.
The defense has just entered into a contract with the Billund-based airline Blackbird Air, which provides three business jets for the Royal Household and the government when they have to attend meetings abroad.
The new Danish ministers – and perhaps also some of the members of the Greenlandic government – can look forward to being flown abroad when important agreements have to be negotiated.
The defense has just entered into a contract with the Billund-based airline Blackbird Air, which provides three business jets for the Royal Household and the government when they have to attend meetings abroad.
The contract costs the state 122 million euros, which corresponds to around DKK 908 million, and runs for the next eight years with the option of two more years, writes the newspaper BT.
Sermitsiaq already told in autumn 2024 about the Ministry of Defence’s plans to relieve the air force’s four old Challenger aircraft from 1997 by letting a private company manage the so-called state flights, so that the Challengers could be used exclusively for surveillance tasks in Greenland, among others.
This happened after severe criticism of the air force, which could not live up to the objective of having a Challenger plane available in Greenland 24/7.
The tender in September 2024 was postponed for unknown reasons, but now a decision has been made, which implies that the politicians can in future fly 480 hours a year – corresponding to over nine hours a week – with the option of buying a further 100 hours from Blackbird Air.
24 hours notice
The three planes that Blackbird Air makes available to the government must be able to take off with 24 hours’ notice. It is a requirement in the contract that the planes are Danish registered and that the flights are handled by Danish citizens.
The airline is owned by the Danish Bestseller billionaire and Denmark’s second richest man, Anders Holch Poulsen.
The billionaire has made his fortune primarily from the production and sale of clothes. He has also made a name for himself with plans to build a 320-metre high-rise in his home town of Brande, but those plans have been put on hold for the time being. Holch Poulsen is also Scotland’s largest landowner. Over a number of years, he has bought up 900 square kilometers of land, equivalent to one percent of Scotland’s total area. The plan is for the land to be included in a large nature restoration project.
Blackbird Air has a fleet of a total of seven business jets and two helicopters. All the planes are luxuriously furnished with leather seats, and the company also offers high-standard catering and Wi-Fi on board the planes.
The Danish government is not completely unfamiliar with the planes from Blackbird Air. The company has already stepped in several times when it has not been possible to use the Challenger planes. It was, among other things, a plane from Blackbird Air that brought Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to Nuuk last summer prior to her and Jens-Frederik Nielsen’s meeting with French President Macron.
