Cost of air travel close to £1m after SNP's first year in office

MINISTERS and civil servants have notched up almost £1 million of air travel in the SNP's first year of office.

Figures released under freedom of information show First Minister Alex Salmond had the biggest bill for flights – almost £3000.

Altogether ministerial air trips cost £13,318 between May 3 last year and April 30 this year.

And civil servants took flights worth £979,891 in the same period.

Environmentalists today criticised the Government for using planes instead of trains, especially on the route between Edinburgh and London, which accounted for many of the flights.

But a spokesman for the First Minister said the cost of air travel was down on the figures for the previous year when the Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition was in charge.

Mr Salmond took a total of 12 flights in the year, most of them between Edinburgh and London, but two Dundee-London and one Aberdeen-London. Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini had the second biggest bill for air travel – more than £2500 – for nine flights, eight of them Edinburgh-London and one Glasgow-London.

Europe and Culture Minister Linda Fabiani was third in the league table with six flights, all between Edinburgh or Glasgow and London, at a cost of £1340.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill ran up the lowest bill, with one £295 air trip to London.

Lothians Green MSP Robin Harper said travelling by train was more efficient because there was the chance to work on a laptop and make phone calls during the journey.

And he said research showed that if an executive's time was priced, travelling by train saved firms about £124 per trip.

Mr Harper said: "Ministers should be trying to set a good example. Even the Greens don't say no air travel at all, but we all try never to go by air if there is a reasonable alternative by train or bus. That's what the Government should be doing too."

Duncan McLaren, chief executive of Friends of the Earth Scotland, welcomed the decrease in flights.

But he said: "There's no excuse for civil servants flying to London, which has good train connections. Video conferencing is also a viable alternative. If civil servants in London aren't prepared to schedule meetings to fit in with train times for their colleagues from Scotland they should be replaced by more sensible people."

Last month the Evening News revealed Mr Salmond took both a chauffeur-driven car and a plane to Manchester when he went to watch Rangers in the UEFA Cup Final. The First Minister flew down after business in the parliament, but had already sent a limo ahead to pick up the tickets and drive him back after the game.

A spokesman for the First Minister defended the bill for flights. He said: "These figures show that in our first year we have already slashed air travel compared to the previous Labour/Liberal Executive. Ministerial air travel dropped in 2007/08 by £6,313.73 against the figures published for 2006/07.

"And we will go further. The Scottish Government is committed to a 20 per cent reduction in business travel emissions, covering all modes, against 2005/06 levels. by 2011, building to a 40 per cent reduction by 2020."

He said air travel costs for civil servants had also dropped – by £268,387 compared to the figures published for 2006/07.