Perdue keeps flight costs down

ATLANTA -- As the state's budget has tightened, Gov. Sonny Perdue has been slower to hop on a government plane or helicopter, and he's taken fewer members of his staff when he has traveled.

Flight invoices analyzed by Morris News Service showed the governor is flying one-third less often this year than in 2008, and the average trip is less expensive, too. Last year, he took 76 flights by state plane or helicopter at a cost billed to his office of $68,000 -- an average of $1,900 per trip.

His office is billed for little more than the price of fuel. A private charter would include the pilots' time, maintenance and a portion of the aircraft's value, which could triple the cost.

So far this year, the governor has taken 33 flights at a cost of $27,000, or $800 each, on average. That puts him on pace for just 50 flights. Last year he averaged 3.5 passengers per flight, but he averaged only 3 this year.

Spokesman Chris Schrimpf said the governor is trying to economize while staying in touch.

"There is a balance to strike between traveling too much and making sure that people in all parts of the state can talk with you and you have a chance to talk to them," Mr. Schrimpf said.

Most executives use charter flights or their own planes to eliminate transfers, layovers and connections, according to Deitrich Stefanelli of Charter Logic, a Naples, Fla., charter company that operates at Georgia airports.

Mr. Perdue typically travels with his bodyguard, his traveling staffer and sometimes a policy aide, press assistant or agency head.

More than once, though, he has been the only passenger on state planes or has required them to fly empty to pick him up. Trips on the state's twin-propeller planes cost an average of $980 per trip; slower helicopters average as little as $295.

Reach Walter Jones at walter.jones@morris.com.