Outgoing Prime Minister Joseph Muscat spent at least 15 hours of his 70-hour family ‘holiday’ in Dubai on planes and waiting in airport lounges.

The outgoing prime minister flew over 4,000km to Dubai on December 27. He left Malta on the 3pm flight to Cyprus, where a connecting flight was taken onwards to the United Arab Emirates.

Dr Muscat and his family would have arrived in Dubai at around midnight local time, after spending over seven hours in transit.

Their ‘holiday’ ended when the Muscats touched down in Malta on December 30 at 1.30pm, having spent over eight hours on the return flight from Dubai, via Larnaca in Cyprus.

This meant the Muscat family spent at least a fifth of their 70-hour weekend break travelling, leaving them with just 55 hours on the ground after such a long journey.

The prime minister’s wife Michelle was pictured sitting in business class during the outbound trip to Dubai.

A search of the equivalent flights one week later, after the busy holiday season, shows the Muscats could have paid upwards of €15,000 for the flights alone if they travelled business class on the outbound and return journeys for their weekend getaway in Dubai, unless they were upgraded.

The Atlantis Hotel in Dubai, where Dr Muscat stayed in 2016 after revelations about secret companies in Panama. Photo: Shutterstock

This is not the first time Dr Muscat has jetted off to Dubai during a major political crisis.

In 2016, the prime minister spent €11,000 to stay at the luxurious Atlantis Hotel weeks after revelations that his former chief of staff Keith Schembri and former Energy and Tourism Minister Konrad Mizzi opened secret companies in Panama.

Leaked documents show their financial advisers Nexia BT prepared documentation to open bank accounts in Dubai for their Panama companies.

The UAE, which is known for its financial secrecy, was also where 17 Black, owned by murder suspect Yorgen Fenech, was set up.

Leaked e-mails show Mr Schembri and Dr Mizzi planned to receive up to $2 million in a single year from 17 Black.

Mr Fenech has implicated the prime minister’s chief of staff as a co-conspirator in the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.

It has also emerged that the business mogul showered the prime minister with lavish gifts, including a watch worth at least €12,000 in 2014 and vintage wine bottles just last February.

Asked about the latest trip, a spokesman for the Office of the Prime Minister said that all travel, apart from that communicated officially, is private.

The prime minister was seen jetting off to London in business class with his wife and two children in tow, just days after his Dubai getaway.

The prime minister also went on an official visit to Palestine just before Christmas, together with his wife and two children.

Dr Muscat’s frequent travels on holiday have had little impact on his bank balance over the years.

The prime minister has been declaring the same bank balance since 2014.