German Air Force Executive Transport Wing (Flugbereitschaft BMVg)

A white A350 with a black-red-gold stripe on the apron – for many spotters that is the sighting of the year. The aircraft of the Flugbereitschaft BMVg (the Executive Transport Wing of the German Air Force, run for the Federal Ministry of Defence) fly without a schedule, without a flight number and without a booking system. That is exactly what makes them so appealing and, at the same time, so hard to plan for. This page explains what is behind the government aircraft, which types belong to the fleet, how to read the serials and where your chances are best.

The Flugbereitschaft at a glance

The Flugbereitschaft is not an airline, even though it is listed here between Lufthansa and Condor. It is a German Air Force unit at wing strength and belongs to the Air Force Troop Command (Luftwaffentruppenkommando). Its customers are the constitutional bodies – such as the Federal President, the Bundestag and the federal government –, as well as delegations and the armed forces themselves, for which it transports troops and flies out wounded or sick personnel.

The history begins on April 1, 1957 at Nörvenich Air Base, at the time as a small unit for liaison flights of the Ministry of Defence. As early as July 1959 it moved to Cologne/Bonn Airport, initially as a squadron of an air transport wing. It became independent in 1963 and was given wing status in 1974. Today around 1,200 service members and about 100 civilian employees work there.

With the government’s move to Berlin, the capital’s role grew. From 1998 the Flugbereitschaft temporarily stationed aircraft and crews in Berlin to fly parliament and the government. Since October 2020 there has been a government terminal at BER as an interim solution, and in October 2025 the helicopters also moved from Tegel to BER.

Codes, callsign and serials

With an airline you look at the IATA code, flight number and registration. With the Flugbereitschaft it works differently:

• No IATA code: there are no tickets and no flight numbers, so no two-letter airline code either.
• ICAO code GAF: the code stands for German Air Force and appears in the air traffic control flight plan and on trackers.
• Callsign “GERMAN AIR FORCE”: this is how the crew identifies itself on the radio, followed by a number.
• Serial instead of registration: the fuselage carries no D- registration but a Bundeswehr serial with a plus sign.

The serials are a real gift for spotters because the first group of digits roughly reveals the aircraft class. How civil registrations are structured in general is explained in the article Understanding aircraft registrations.

Serial	Type	Role
10+01 to 10+03	Airbus A350-900	Long-haul for the government and large delegations
15+01, 15+02	Airbus A319 (Corporate Jet)	Government flights on short and medium routes
15+03	Airbus A319	Observation flights under the Open Skies Treaty
15+04	Airbus A321-200	Taken over secondhand from Lufthansa
15+10, 15+11	Airbus A321LR	Gray fleet: troop transport and MedEvac
14+02 to 14+04	Bombardier Global 5000	Smaller delegations
14+05 to 14+07	Bombardier Global 6000	Smaller delegations
82+01 to 82+03	Eurocopter AS532 Cougar	Helicopters, mainly in the Berlin area

The fleet: from the Cougar to the A350

The fleet is small but surprisingly varied. For collectors that means: with a good dozen fixed-wing aircraft and three helicopters, the Flugbereitschaft is one of the few fleets you could theoretically tick off completely – in practice it takes a lot of patience.

Airbus A350-900 – the long-haul aircraft

The flagships are three Airbus A350-900s. Lufthansa Technik handled the fit-out of the government cabin, with the contract signed in April 2019. The Air Force took delivery of the 10+03 “Kurt Schumacher” first, in August 2020; it was ferried to Cologne in October 2020. The 10+02 “Theodor Heuss” followed later and – in November 2022 – the 10+01 “Konrad Adenauer”. The names recall politicians from the founding years of the Federal Republic.

The name “Konrad Adenauer” was previously carried by an A340 of the Flugbereitschaft – so photos from the 2010s show an entirely different aircraft under the same name. When sorting, always go by the serial, not the name.

A319, A321 and A321LR – the medium-haul aircraft

On shorter routes the Flugbereitschaft flies Airbus A319s in the corporate jet configuration and an Airbus A321 that used to serve with Lufthansa. Another A319 is a special case: it was equipped for observation flights under the Open Skies Treaty and flies for the Bundeswehr Verification Center, not as a government aircraft.

The two A321LRs (15+10 and 15+11) arrived in June and August 2022. They are painted gray and belong to the “gray fleet”: they handle troop transport and national MedEvac missions that the A310 MRTT used to do. You can hardly recognize the long-range version of the A321 from the outside – the paint is the best feature here.

Bombardier Global 5000 and 6000 – the small delegations

For small delegations and short trips the Flugbereitschaft uses three Bombardier Global 5000s (14+02 to 14+04) and three Global 6000s (14+05 to 14+07). The three Global 6000s arrived in 2019. One Global 5000, the 14+01, was so badly damaged in a botched landing at Berlin Schönefeld in the same year that it was written off.

Risk of confusion: you do see the larger Bombardier Global 7500 at German airports, but not with the Flugbereitschaft. And Gulfstream jets on the government apron generally belong to foreign delegations. You find more tips on the small jets in the article Spotting business jets.

AS532 Cougar – the helicopters

Three Eurocopter AS532 Cougars (82+01 to 82+03) fly mainly in the Berlin area, for example for short transfers of government members. They have been stationed at BER since October 2025.

Retired: A340, A310 and the eastern fleet

If you browse old spotter photos, you find types with the Flugbereitschaft that you no longer see today:

• Airbus A340-300: the two A340s flew for the Flugbereitschaft from 2011. After technical problems during a trip by the then foreign minister to the Pacific region, A340 operations ended in September 2023.
• Airbus A310: several A310s flew as government aircraft, four of them as MRTT tankers and transports with MedEvac equipment. The last A310 left service on June 15, 2022 – its farewell had been postponed once more because of the war in Ukraine. Refueling and strategic MedEvac were then taken over by the multinational MRTT unit.
• Former East German (NVA) aircraft: after reunification the Flugbereitschaft briefly took over Tupolev Tu-134s and Ilyushin Il-62s of the GDR government squadron. Two Tu-154Ms remained from 1991 to 1999; one of them was lost in 1997 in a collision off the coast of Namibia.
• Earlier types such as the Boeing 707, VFW 614 or Canadair Challenger 601 belong to the unit’s older history.

Do not mix them up: the German Air Force’s Airbus A400M does not belong to the Flugbereitschaft but to the transport wings. Since the A310’s farewell it has taken over part of the transport tasks.

How to recognize government aircraft

Until July 2003 the government aircraft were white with blue stripes and carried “Luftwaffe” titles in large letters. Since then a new design has applied: white fuselage, black-red-gold stripe and the titles “Bundesrepublik Deutschland” (Federal Republic of Germany). “Luftwaffe” now appears only small on the tail. This look is also called the “white fleet.”

The military transport aircraft – today mainly the A321LRs – are gray, by contrast. They look inconspicuous from afar and easily get lost among other jets – which for many collectors is exactly why they are an appealing target.

Spotting the Flugbereitschaft

Government aircraft have no schedule you can look up on the internet. Your chances depend on where you stand and what is going on politically.

Cologne/Bonn is the home base. All fixed-wing aircraft are based here, so you see them most regularly there. The aircraft stand on the military side of the airport; for photos use the publicly accessible areas of the airport, such as the observation deck at Cologne/Bonn Airport.

Berlin is the place for government flights with the chancellor and ministers. The government terminal is at BER, and from the observation deck at BER you have a chance to catch a takeoff or landing.

Summits and conferences bring government aircraft to other airports. At Munich Airport, for example, the Security Conference in February brings plenty of state and delegation traffic. State visits and international meetings in Frankfurt, Vienna or Brussels are also worth a look at the news.

Before every outing, check the runway direction in use – it decides whether you are on the right side of the airport. How that works is shown in the guide to the runway direction in use at an airport. For the right focal length and camera settings, the equipment checklist helps.

Common mix-ups

• Taking the Flugbereitschaft for an airline – it is a German Air Force unit with no ticket sales and no IATA code.
• Noting names instead of serials – “Konrad Adenauer” was first an A340, today it is the A350 10+01.
• Taking every white aircraft with national colors for German – other states also fly white government jets.
• Mixing up the Global 6000 and Global 7500 – the Flugbereitschaft flies only the Global 5000 and 6000.
• Counting the A400M as part of the Flugbereitschaft – it belongs to the German Air Force’s air transport wings.
• Overlooking the A321LR – the gray jets are part of the Flugbereitschaft even though they do not look like government aircraft.

Conclusion

The Flugbereitschaft BMVg is the most exclusive fleet you can spot in Germany: no schedule, around 15 fixed-wing aircraft and three helicopters, and a mix of A350s, A319s, A321s, business jets and helicopters. If you can read serials, keep an eye on Cologne/Bonn and Berlin and follow the news, you turn chance sightings into a plannable hunt – and always stay on public ground.