But she's the Commission President—an executive position for a very complex and powerful international institution. If she were an MEP, then fine, I could accept that an MEP does not have anywhere the representative power such that their time could be so important as to need chartered flights... But I do not accept that for major executive operating in that capacity should be beholden to mere messaging politics. You cannot predict the traffic situation ahead of time, whereas you know to the very minute what any flight times are, which makes them vital for planning at that level.

Why would you want the Executive leader of the EU risking event and meeting timings when she's representing almost the entire continent all in order to "deliver a message"? Should the US president take a taxi when going from DC to New York?

In any case the message is clearly not dependent on this since basically only the AfD and British tabloids are feigning outrage over this.