Politicians are frequent fliers on corporate jets

Lisa Myers Senior investigative correspondent • Profile

WASHINGTON - Virginia Sen. George Allen, a potential presidential candidate, recently boarded a corporate jet that flew him to the Republican Southern Leadership Conference in Memphis and back to Washington the following day. Despite the availability of commercial flights, Allen says he had no other alternative but to fly on a corporate-owned jet that weekend.

“All I got to say,” he told NBC News, “is the reason I do it is I have a very busy schedule and need to get to a lot of different places.”

Allen's staff said the Republican senator needed to use the private jet — owned by a successful Virginia corporation — to get back to Washington in time for a press dinner and an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press” the next day. Allen spoke at the Memphis GOP conference early Saturday morning and departed Memphis for Washington on the corporate jet at 11:13 a.m.

But NBC found two commercial flights that would have gotten him back to Washington in time for his dinner. A commercial U.S. Airways flight would have left Memphis at 12:30 p.m., bringing him into Dulles at 3:32 p.m. A Northwest Airlines flight would have departed Memphis at 2:17 p.m. and arrived at National Airport in Washington at 5:17 p.m.

The owner of the jet is Glade Knight, the CEO of Apple Hospitality, a real estate investment firm from Richmond, Va. Knight tells NBC that Allen’s campaign staff called and asked to use his aircraft. “It was really to accommodate their needs, which I was pleased to do. And I think he’s a terrific person,” Knight says of Allen. “If it will help him, I’m in favor of it, and it certainly complies with the laws.”

Reimbursement ‘won't pay for ... flight’
The senator reimbursed the firm the equivalent of first-class airfare for himself, his wife and aides, a total of $3,597. “That won’t pay for the cost of the flight,” acknowledges Knight. “Absolutely not.” In fact, charter operators say that the actual cost of a similar charter flight would have been about $15,000, more than four times what Allen paid.

Allen’s campaign staff points out that Apple Hospitality did not have a lobbyist on the flight to or from Memphis — something that is common practice with many other corporations. But an NBC News investigation of hundreds of congressional financial disclosure forms reveals that Allen used corporate jets 39 times in the last two years.

He is not alone. Access to corporate jets at bargain-basement prices is among Congress' greatest perks, and it’s all entirely legal.

“This is a big-time abuse,” says Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a congressional watchdog group. “It’s like members of Congress have their own private little air force.”

Among some of Congress’s most frequent fliers: Rep. Michael Oxley, R-Ohio, has taken 94 corporate flights over the last five years; Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., 104 flights; and Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., 114 flights.

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