A reader emailed me “Obama Cracks Down on Airplane Emissions, Buys Massive New Air force One”. The most interesting item is the hourly operating cost: $206,337 (compare to about $25,000 per flight hour to charter (source)). If American Airlines spent this much during the 7-hour flight from London to Boston it would cost $1.44 million for the trip in operating cost (i.e., not including the capital cost of the aircraft) or about $3500 per passenger (i.e., a round-trip coach ticket couldn’t be sold for less than about $7000 plus taxes and fees).
8 thoughts on “Air Force One operating cost: $206,337 per hour”
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I hate the Emperor of The United States game, but I think you have to point out that it is not an airplane. It is a mobile seat of power, which a few things that the average charter jet lacks.
Those Breitbart articles often don’t accomplish what they intend. The last paragraph states that using the new plane will reduce emissions by 14%.
Colin: We already paid for a mobile seat of power, I think. The current planes are not unairworthy, right?
Vince: There is no way that throwing out an old plane (or two) and spending $1 billion or so on a new plane (or two) can reduce emissions, especially when the plane isn’t operated an airline number of hours per year. As noted in http://philip.greenspun.com/blog/2012/09/06/destroying-the-earth-by-buying-organic-locally-produced-food/ , the more you spend the more damage you do to the Earth. The people who receive the $1 billion will be spending it on new SUVs, bigger houses, vacations in far-off places.
The idea that this massive expenditure of tax dollars will save the Earth is like saying that you can save the planet by buying a Tesla for 1000 miles a year of driving.
A quick glance at Wikipedia shows that previous iterations of Air Force One mostly ended up at museums, so you may have a point. On other hand, Washington state gets most of its electricity from hydroelectric dams, so maybe there were fewer emissions in involved in the assembly of a 747 than of other manufactured goods.
But when you mention how the billion dollars will be spent, you’re forgetting that that money is deficit spending. A good conservative economist would say that the billion in spending will today will have to be paid for by over a billion in taxes some time in the future. According to your logic, those taxes would take money or people’s pockets and reduce their capacity to generate carbon dioxide.
The”cost” likely includes the operating budget of the entire Air Force squadron that exists to fly Air Force One (the mission designator; there is actually more than one plane) the security detail needed to move with the plane to secure the plane, the service contracts for the aircraft and the hotel services aboard (catering, linens, cleaning, etc) the fuel contract, maintenance, and the additional costs to house the crew on the road, and the base services costs at Andrews, which includes ultra secure hangars, base perimeter helicopter patrols during flight activities and the costs of pre-launch aerial security which usually requires a Combat Air Patrol of two fighter jets.
CHenry: Your conjecture is not supported by the Air Force’s own data. See http://www.judicialwatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Obama-California-Cover-Letter.pdf for how the cost per flight hour includes “fuel, flight consumables, depot level repairables, aircraft overhaul, and engine overhaul.” (in other words, the quoted hourly cost is only the marginal cost, does not include any fixed costs such as hangar, does not include any costs for additional aircraft, such as the fighter jets that you mention, nor, apparently, the cost of the crew).
According to Airline Operations and Scheduling link, a 747 costs an airliner ~$25k an hour to operate. This includes lease cost, interior maintenance, plane and engine maintenance, fuel, and personnel costs.
philg: I suspect there isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison being made between Air Force One and a typical commercial 747 hourly operating expense-wise. I worked for a time at Andrews AFB and have been around other Air Force operations (FWIW, the broadly-quoted hourly costs for a fuel-hogging USAF Lockheed C-141 used in routine medical evacuations was $35,000/flight hour) so when I see a $206K per hour figure, I suspect a large number of items unique to the operation of this particular airplane have been wrapped into the hourly figure. I suspect the depot level maintenance mentioned includes materials not needed on a commercial plane, extra fuel security and testing, on-board electronics needed to support the President as commander-in-chief, replacement engines that may have to be kept in a number and state of readiness not typical of commercial operations. I don’t know how often you have to test electronic countermeasures devices or replace flare and chaff decoys, but I have to believe those things are done as part of routine scheduled services to the aircraft, and due to the special nature of the plane, a government aircraft that looks like an ordinary airliner but includes many things no airliner has, the costs are substantial. I suspect the greenness of the plane will have little overall impact on its operational costs.
The “first denial authority” letter is amusing in its GFY-style refusal, spending much more text telling the requestor “we asked and they said there wasn’t one” and “we don’t have to tell you and here is why.” Not surprising.