Ministry of Defence personnel will be given discounted fares on the low cost airline EasyJet, as the department tries to trim spending on logistics, the carrier said on Tuesday.
Soldiers and MoD staff routinely travel around Europe to military bases in Northern Ireland, Gibraltar and Cyprus, as well as internally within the UK – all destinations now served by budget airlines.
Easyjet says that as part of the deal, it will reduce its excess baggage charges for travelling personnel.
Infantry soldiers carry as much as 66kg of kit on the frontline, according to the defence consultancy Janes Defence. The standard allowance on an EasyJet flight is 20kg, with customers paying £10 for each 1kg over – a cost of £460.
EasyJet did not return calls for comment regarding the scale of discounts, but said in a release that it hoped to sign similar agreements with other government departments.
In a statement accompanying the announcement, Lieutenant Colonel Mike Holmes, head of defence travel, said that the deal represented: “an excellent opportunity to drive out more efficiencies through smarter procurement.
“The MoD is constantly seeking to identify new business initiatives that will help generate savings and offer better value for money to the customer. This new partnership is the first of its kind with any low cost carrier.”