NASA spends about five times as much money flying
employees around on its passenger aircraft service than
it would cost to get the same employees to and from
their destinations on commercial carriers, the Government
Accountability Office has said.
It said most NASA air travel is commercial, but NASA
employees took at least 1,188 flights with NASA passenger
aircraft services during fiscal 2003 and 2004 to the tune
of $25 million — minus depreciation and other associated
costs — versus an estimated $5 million it would have cost
to fly commercial.
However, NASA’s passenger aircraft can save time, provide
more flexibility to meet senior executive schedules, and
provide other less tangible and quantifiable benefits,
and the agency is considering spending $77 million on top
of the $14 million it spent in 2001 to acquire aircraft
and upgrade it fleet, according to GAO-05-818.
It said NASA’s ownership of passenger aircraft service
conflicts with federal policy allowing agencies to own
aircraft only for specified mission requirements, such as
prisoner transportation and aeronautical research.
GAO’s analysis of NASA passenger aircraft flights for
fiscal 2003 and 2004 showed that about 86 percent of
flights — seven out of eight — were in support of routine
visits, meetings, speeches, conferences, etc., and it said
the agency’s oversight and management of its passenger
aircraft service is ineffective.
“NASA’s ability to make informed decisions on continued
ownership of its passenger aircraft fleet and on
flight-by-flight justifications was impaired by the lack
of reliable agency-wide data on aircraft costs and other
weak management oversight practices,” according to GAO.
It estimated that discontinuing the service could save
$100 million.