The Irish Air Corps’ sole Learjet 45, serial 258, has now been officially withdrawn from the Air Corps fleet after more than two decades in service. Delivered in December 2003 and entering service in early 2004, the aircraft formed a core part of the Ministerial Air Transport Service (MATS) fleet, operating alongside the Gulfstream IV (251), which remained in service until 2014.
Primarily tasked with presidential and ministerial transport, the Learjet also supported VIP and military transport as well as air ambulance missions, with the ability to be reconfigured for medical evacuation using a stretcher system. The aircraft typically carried up to seven passengers and had a range of around 2,000 nautical miles, making it well suited to short- and medium-haul missions within Europe.
In recent years, the aircraft experienced increasing reliability issues and declining availability, contributing to the decision to replace it with a new Dassault Falcon 6X, delivered in December 2025 at a cost of approximately €53 million.
Learjet 258 has now been withdrawn from active service, bringing to a close over 20 years of Irish Air Corps jet operations in the ministerial and air ambulance roles. The aircraft made its final flight on 21st April 2026, ferrying from Casement Aerodrome, Baldonnel, to Shannon Airport. Its military identity was removed on 5th May, when Air Corps roundels and titles were stripped from the airframe, and on 9th May it was re-registered in the United States as N554VA to Alliance Air Parts Acquisitions Corporation.
