Bishop to the back of the plane. The flying habits of Bronwyn Bishop have garnered many headlines recently, informing us of the Speaker’s preference for helicopters and chartered flights to party fundraisers. On Friday Fairfax reported that when Bishop can’t secure personal transport, she flies on a standard flight to the front row of business class. Former flight attendant Clayton Long told Adam Gartrell that a flight was once delayed because Bishop didn’t get her seat. We hear from another tipster that the preference for a particular seat was well known among Qantas staff “[she] is known as ‘1 C’ [One C] at Qantas as this is the seat she wants every time she travels. If anyone else has booked it, she will have a temper tantrum at check in — or on the flight.” Our tipster tells us “businessmen have given up seat 1C just because they want to get going and are embarrassed by the whole situation”. We asked a spokesperson for the speaker if 1C was her preferred seat and were told “she takes whatever seat she’s given. In fact we were in row 3 last week”. Our tipster said Bishop was also known for placing her feet on the bulkhead of the plane. Crikey was also told Philip Ruddock often travels with her to have a “calming influence” on the tantrums, a claim Ruddock’s spokesperson denied. Looks like this story has still got quite a bit of tailwind.

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