We received a petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to allow Veterans and surviving family members to be able to return to the place of War using the MOD indulgance flight system.”
Details of Petition:
“Recently some of the Falklands veterens, including myself, went back to the Falklands as part of an organised pilgrimmage and were amazed to find out that veterans and families have to pay full cost whilst serving MOD employees(that may have no conection at all with the war can use the MOD indulgentflight system only costing £50. Whilst there have been so many suicides since the connflict (more than actually dies in the Falkland war, and as we have found out, the visit can be fital in finding some peace. This is not possible for so many that can not afford it. We petition (along with the veterans minister Mr Twig who agreed on the Island to back us for this plight) to allow veterans and families of those who lost their life to be allowed to use indulgance flights for this purpose.”
· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage
Read the Government’s response
Defence Ministers and officials received a number of approaches for the Ministry of Defence (MOD) to provide veterans of the Falklands Conflict with indulgence rate flights.
Following discussions with the South Atlantic Medal Association 82 (SAMA82), it was agreed that, with effect from 1 September 2008, applications for Indulgence Air Passages on MOD sponsored flights to the Falklands can be extended to certain categories of veterans of the 1982 South Atlantic Conflict who were awarded the South Atlantic Medal. Because of the limited number of seats available on these flights, this facility cannot be extended to the families of Falklands veterans.
SAMA82 agreed to undertake administration of the scheme, including certification of the eligibility of all applicants.
Beyond this extension to include eligible veterans, MOD regulations restrict access to these Indulgence Air Passages to serving MOD employees currently undertaking 12 month tours in the Falklands, their spouses, parents and children.
Eligibility for the scheme does not carry an automatic guarantee of a flight, however. Indulgence Air Passages are subject to strict rules, potential availability is only notified at very short notice (usually no more than 48 hours before departure), do not guarantee a seat on a flight, and passengers have to accept the risk that they may be off-loaded prior to departure or at any intermediate stage of a flight because of higher priority passengers or freight requirements.
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