US Government chooses Vision Airlines for spy swap

During the US-Russia spy swap this morning, the U.S. was represented not by a military plane, but by Vision Airlines. The contract for this flight was picked up by the charter company that usually runs escape flights. Some are questioning the use of a private charter company for government business.
Article resource: Vision Airlines – US Government flies Russian spies in style by Personal Money Store
Vision Airlines swaps spies
It looked more like a spy movie than a vision from 2010, but a Russian Emergency Ministry plane met up with Vision Airlines on a Vienna tarmac this morning. Ten accused Russian agents got on the Russian plane while four “Western sympathizers” got on the Vision Airlines jet. The biggest post-Cold War era spy drama was hopefully over once both planes took off.
The choice of Vision Airlines
The decision to send the Russian agents back home and bring the American agents back to the U.S. on a luxury charter jet is an interesting one. Russia had a much more official way of handling the situation. What exactly were US officials thinking with this choice? Was each other plane in the entire United States already taken? It is possible that both the United States and Russia agreed to not use military planes, just in case. No matter why, using a luxury charter jet is an intriguing choice. No word on if the a number of thousand dollar flight fee was donated, or if the bill is going to the government. Donating may are the smarter choice, as Vision Airlines is getting so much site traffic today that their site keeps going down.
Keeping the relation improvement going
According to Rahm Emanuel’s discussion with PBS’s “NewsHour,” the President was “briefed” on the spy swap decision. It appears most decisions were carefully made to keep away from as much conflict as possible. Both countries have said that they really want to try and “warm up” relations.