The parliament of Swaziland, an impoverished kingdom bounded by South Africa and Mozambique, has voted in favour of acquiring a new presidential jet for use by the country's royal family.
The aircraft to be acquired, an A340-300 formerly in service with China Airlines (CI, Taipei Taoyuan), will replace MD-87 3DC-SWZ (msn 53041), leased from Greece's GainJet Aviation (GNJ, Athens), whose limited range has become a headache, especially for longhaul flights to the United States and Europe.
Parliamentary transcripts indicate the quadjet costs approximately SZL200 million (USD12.6 million).
The acquisition comes at a time Swazi Prime Minister Barnabas Dlamini has warned the country faces a massive budget deficit following a slump in foreign revenue inflows and an increase in local civil servant salaries. According to the amaBhugane investigative news source, King Mswati III’s salary – ZAR792 million (USD53 million) in 2015 – consumes about 5% of the country's budget.
