WASHINGTON: News organisations knew that covering US President Barack Obama’s trip to Asia and Australia last month was going to be expensive. Now they know just how expensive — and it’s causing some sticker shock.
The White House Travel Office has told reporters that the final cost for the charter jet that flew them to and from China, Burma and Australia will be stunning: $89,000 per person.
That’s not only the most ever for a presidential trip, it’s also nearly 50 percent more than what journalists thought they were going to be paying Delta Airlines, the charter carrier, in early November. Back then, the estimated cost was a mere $60,000 per head, also record territory.
The final total doesn’t include the other costs of covering the president on the road, such as hotels, meals, ground transportation and such incidentals as the fees for renting press filing centers in the four cities that Obama visited. All told, the final bill could be stratospheric, roughly $100,000 per person for the nine-day trip.
Like a homeowner presented with an unexpected repair bill, journalists are asking the obvious question: What?!?
“We are very concerned about this and trying to get to the bottom of what happened,” said Christi Parsons, the president of the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA), which represents reporters. Parsons, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times who covered the Asia trip, was fielding calls from journalists who were trying to explain the hair-raising bill to their bosses.
The WHCA coordinates presidential press travel with the White House Travel Office, which collects bids from charter carriers and organises the flights. The higher bill is a result of some inaccurate pre-trip estimates, but who’s responsible for the miscalculations is still in dispute.
Press charter costs are split among all travelling journalists, and the price of a seat is a reflection of the number of media people who sign up for a trip. As more people travel, the cost of each seat falls. But the opposite is also true.
And that’s what seems to have happened in this case. Days before the president’s departure, the WHCA said it expected an average of 51 travellers on the five legs of the trip, which meant that each person would pay $60,000, based on an estimate by the White House Travel Office.
Instead, some news organisations — perhaps spooked by the expected price tag — balked at sending a reporter on the charter. Other journalists simply withdrew for unknown reasons.
By the time the charter left on November 8, only 40 media representatives had committed to flying on all five segments. And that’s just the average number. Some reporters made their own arrangements, flying commercial on some legs and joining the charter on others. Which meant that on some flights, the 365-seat Boeing 777-200 used by Delta took off with fewer than 40 journalists, leaving acres of empty seats.
The Washington Post was among the news organisations that sent a reporter on the charter. Others included Fox News, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, the Associated Press, Tribune newspapers, and Kyodo and Fuji TV of Japan.
Some news organisations are withholding payment for the charter until they can get to the bottom of what happened.
Presidential trips are fast-moving affairs, and the press charter, which flies on a schedule similar to that of Air Force One, is usually the only way for reporters to keep up. Obama’s next major trip abroad is in January, when he is scheduled to travel to India.
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