Veteran newsman A Kadir Jasin has criticised the country's VIPs for travelling in style overseas, and compared the prime minister's VIP aircraft fleet with Queen Elizabeth, who prefers to take commercial flights with British Airways.

In a further jibe on the government for keeping mum in a parliamentary reply, in which Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Shahidan Kassim did not want to disclose details of Rosmah Mansor's flight to Padang , Indonesia, recently, Kadir noted that Malaysia has nine VIP aircraft run by the Royal Malaysian Air Force.

He also listed the VIP aircraft - a Boeing Business Jet, a Bombardier Global Express, a Dassault Falcon 900, an Airbus A319, an ageing Fokker F28 Fellowship and two each of Sikorsky SH-3 Sea King and Sikorsky S-70 Black Hawk.

“The Queen of the UK and its realm has a much smaller fleet of VIP transport and they are older than our state-of-the-art fleet. More often than not, she uses commercial flights, normally flying with British Airways.

“Our VIPs know how to travel in great style and comfort,” he quipped in his blog today.

The RMAF aircraft are for use of government VIPs including Najib.

In a parliamentary report to DAP's Anthony Loke last year, Shahidan said trips taken using the government's nine private aeroplanes and helicopters cost, on average, close to half a million ringgit in 2012.

The government also refused to reveal in Parliament when asked about Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's use of the jet during a holiday in Europe, after a visit to Netherlands for official business.