President Obama Flew on Air Force One 172 Times in 2010-Truth!
Summary of eRumor:
This is a forwarded commentary allegedly by CBS Reporter Mark Knoller that says President Obama flew on Air Force One 172 times during the year 2010, at the expense of the American taxpayer of $181,757 per flight hour.
The Truth:
The first part of this commentary is actually from the Los Angeles Times January 3, 2011 blog of Andrew Malcolm who reported on the findings of a CBS report by Mark Knoller called “Obama’s 2010: By the Numbers.”
Knoller has been “keeping track of some of the numerical aspects of the Presidency,” according to a video posted on the CBS web site and has tabulated a number of things from how many speeches President Obama has given to how many times he has used Air Force One, the Presidential jet.
Malcolm used a November 24, 2010Fox News Report, that said that the Air Force provided an estimate on the operational cost of the Air Force One to a “staggering — $181,757 per hour.”
According to the Fox News Report, the President’s 2010 trip to India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan logged an estimated Air Force One flight time of 48 hours at a cost of close to $8.7 million. The president also visited Lisbon, Portugal, for a NATO conference at a cost of $2.7 million.
Whether or not the number of flights is in excess may be another matter. Knoller also wrote an article in 2009 with a final tabulation of George W. Bush’s eight year term in the Oval Office and citing his source as the Presidential Airlift Group the previous Commander in Chief flew Air Force One 1,674 times over a total distance of 1,490,698 miles. That averages out to 209 trips per year for President George W. Bush.
updated 06/20/11