Clive Palmer shedding planes from his private squadron

Clive Palmer is selling off two of his planes, while two others have racked up $50,000 in parking fees in six months.

The 1997 CESSNA CITATION X being sold by Clive Palmer

Clive Palmer is selling off two of his planes, while two others, which no planespotters have seen in the air in years, are believed to have racked up nearly $50,000 in parking fees at Brisbane airport in the past six months alone.

A propeller-driven four-seater Cirrus SR22T-G3, located on the Gold Coast and registered to Mr Palmer’s Closeridge Pty Ltd company, has recently been advertised at $US565,000 ($775,000).

His 1997 Cessna Citation X ­private jet, first advertised earlier this year with a $US5.3 million asking price, also remains for sale online.

The owner of that private jet, registered in the Cayman Islands, is listed as Queensland Nickel — the federal MP’s struggling refinery in Townsville.

Mr Palmer and his legal team have claimed the company is on the brink of collapse, unsuccessfully lobbying the Queensland government to guarantee a $35m loan earlier this month to keep it operating.

Both planes are on an aviation sales website as located at the Gold Coast, with the same contact person listed.

The listed contact person, Rob, told The Australian in November that he was a pilot who was looking after the sale of the jet.

He did not respond to calls about the two planes yesterday. The Australian-registered Cirrus plane, advertised “with all options and extras” and at “an exceptionally low sales price”, was involved in a minor safety incident involving an electrical system fault in August 2013 near Kingaroy in rural Queensland, according to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

Mr Palmer also has two 155-seat McDonell Douglas MD-82 jets, bearing the livery of his loss-making company Mineralogy, parked at Brisbane airport. Both are registered in the Cayman ­Islands to Mineralogy.

Planespotters, who regularly share photos and flight details of planes leaving major airports, have not uploaded information about the two jets in several years.

A Brisbane Airport Corporation spokeswoman said she was unsure whether the two planes had flown anywhere in recent years, and directed The Australian to a list of standard operating fees when asked about parking costs the jets may have incurred.

Currently, aircraft with the same maximum takeoff weight as the Mineralogy jets incur a daily parking fee of $135.80, excluding GST. That rate usually increases slightly every six months.

It was reported this month that Mr Palmer’s other private jet, an Isle of Man-registered Bombardier Global Express worth up to $34m second-hand, had incurred an estimated $70,000 in flight costs in a week.