THE PRIVATE jets of Asda's billionaire owners, the Issa brothers, flew between London and the Caribbean more than 50 times over a two-and-ahalf-year period, City A.M. can reveal.

Zuber and Mohsin Issa (pictured), who co-own Asda and the forecourt business EG Group, borrowed £39m in interest-free loans from their petrol station empire to fund their purchase of the two aircraft.

Both are personally owned by Zuber and Mohsin through two Isle of Manbased companies, Clear Sky LP and Clear Sky 2 LP, which received loans from EG Group.

Data shared with City A.M. by Flightradar24 reveals the various locations the planes flew to.

The Bombardier Global 6000 and Bombardier Challenger 350 flew nearly 1,000 times to and from London airports between December 2020 and July 2023.

Many of the flights were to tropical hotspots, including 51 trips between London airports and Caribbean islands ranging from Barbados to Grenada and Saint Martin.

Some 24 flights were taken between London and Ibiza and 17 to and from London and Malaga. Other sunny destinations included Tenerife, Corfu and Cancun.

It is ultimately unclear who was on the planes for any of these trips.

EG Group has said previously it "occasionally" charters aircraft from the Clear Sky companies, primarily to "facilitate secure travel to international business meetings" and "support the effective management of our in-country operations." But an EG Group spokesperson stressed the private jets are owned separately by the Issa brothers' companies, which are able to "charter the aircraft to third parties for flights."

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 "Any use of the jets by EG Group for business purposes is appropriately recorded and accounted for. We cannot comment on third-party usage," they added.

A source close to EG Group said that the flights to tropical destinations did not relate to use by the business.

EG Group declined to provide a breakdown of which trips related to the company and which ones were related to the brothers' personal use.

The Issa brothers and Asda declined to comment.

"As we have previously stated, loans to the Clear Sky companies have been provided at rates comparable to the average commercial rate of interest, are fully disclosed in the EG Group accounts and continue to be so," the spokesperson added.

The loan arrangement for the planes previously prompted scrutiny from politicians amid concerns Asda's complex structure and high debts were stopping it from keeping costs lower during the cost of living crisis.

(c) 2024 City A.M., source Newspaper