Iohannis' visit to Africa/file photo/presidency.ro

Ex-president Iohannis spent over 22 million euros on private flights during his term

By Romania Journal Last updated Mar 19, 2025

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Klaus Iohannis, the president of Romania between December 2014 and February 2025, spent a total of 113 million lei (22.7 million euros) on special flights during his presidency, according to documents declassified by the Presidential Administration, at the request of interim president Ilie Bolojan.

The document shows that the delegations led by Klaus Iohannis made 193 round-trip flights. Iohannis’ most expensive “trip” took place in 2023 and cost 7,519,680 lei. In this case, it was a “tour” in South America, with visits to Brazil, Chile and Argentina.

In 2015, President Klaus Iohannis made 25 trips, the total value for special flights amounting to 6,606,090 lei. For 2016, the total value of the 20 flights made by the former head of state amounted to 5,189,818.19 lei. The following year, the 16 flights abroad cost 5,600,407 lei.

In 2018, the former president made 17 special flights, totaling 4,923,229 lei. The 21 special flights carried out in 2019 for foreign trips of delegations led by President Klaus Iohannis cost 9,335,729 lei. The fewest special flights were made for trips abroad in 2020. The nine flights cost 3,167,074 lei. The 16 special flights carried out in 2021 cost a total of 7,039,007 lei. In 2022, there were 20 special flights abroad, and these cost 13,719,191.25 lei.

Delegations led by former President Klaus Iohannis made the most special flights abroad in 2023. The 26 flights cost 36,459,563 lei. In 2024, the 22 special flights cost 20,899,997 lei. In 2025, there was only one special flight, the value of which was 685,125 lei.

The list with all flights is available here.

Ilie Bolojan decided to declassify the costs of the former administration, considering it a gesture of transparency, a form of “respect for the people”. “Periodically, all the expenses of the Presidency will be made public”, Bolojan stressed.

In this regard, he called for transparency.

“We had many requests from the press to be transparent regarding these expenses. We made this decision to do it and I believe that in a few days the accounting teams will communicate these things publicly. It is another matter that is related, I think, to respect for the people, but not this kind of respect, to do populist things”, said Bolojan.

“I think that people at a public institution, in general, must have data related to the expenses of that institution, to ensure that they are made at a decent level, are in good order, because otherwise all kinds of suspicions arise and if you don’t do things out of place, if something is opaque and not transparent, it gives rise to all kinds of discussions,” he added.

“So, periodically, all the Presidency’s expenses will be made public from now on. We will upload them to the website, they will be transparent, so that there will be no more discussions about how much a certain activity or another activity costs,” Bolojan highlighted.

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