Consumer

DFW Airport Execs Spend Big On Pricey Travel

DFW AIRPORT (CBS 11 News) ― If you drive, park, or fly from DFW International Airport, or even pay federal income taxes, your money pays to run the airport. So when the highest paid airport CEO in the country, Jeff Fegan of DFW International Airport, stated publicly earlier this year that "we continue to look for ways to operate the airport more efficiently," we were puzzled.   Because around that same time, CBS 11 was investigating the airport's finances.   We looked at the airport's last two years of travel records and found documentation showing some executives and board members living the lives of star athletes and celebrities with your cash.

In all, DFW International Airport executives and board members spent close to $500,000 on first- and business- class travel in 18 months, at a time when the board and CEO were concerned about cutting costs.

During another recent interview, Mr. Fegan told us the airport was "working very hard at trying to save money."  But it's unclear if that same credo applied two years ago.  Expense reports show when Mr. Fegan steps on an airplane, he usually sits in first or business class, unlike most of the other passengers who sit in coach. Some records show he flies to Austin first class, costing you $800 each time.  A typical coach ticket might be about $100. His first class flight to New York City cost you $1500.  A typical ticket in coach costs about $250.

International travel for Fegan is much more extravagant.  He flies first and business class to Asia, Europe, South America and the Middle East, where tickets can cost up to $13,000 each. Records show Fegan took 21 trips in 18 months. Just the airfare cost you $97,000. Fegan, who is over six feet tall, defends the need to fly in the front of the plane because he says he needs his "physical space" and says it's difficult for "people of my size to sit in coach and sleep."

CBS 11 also looked at Fegan's hotel receipts. When Fegan arrives at his destination, he stays in 5 star luxury hotels, like the Hyatt Churchill in London. According to the bill, you paid an average of $1300 a night for his suite there. The suite is one of the biggest rooms in the entire hotel.  Mr. Fegan didn't seem aware of the price per night but stated "it was probably the only room available."  But when we matched up his flight itinerary to the hotel receipt, we were even more puzzled because it showed during one of those nights you paid for, he wasn't in his suite.  He was 35,000 feet over the Atlantic Ocean in his first class seat.  You paid for his empty room so he could check in early when he landed.
 
Michael Q. Sullivan is the president of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, a consumer watchdog group.  He told us he was shocked at the way the airport is allowed to spend money. "It's either I laugh or vomit," Sullivan said. "If this was a for-profit company, shareholders would be calling for their heads."
 
Fegan's executive staff also gets the 5 star treatment.  Joe Lopano, DFW's Executive Vice President of Marketing, spent about $147,000 of your money traveling around the world in first and business class (see receipts here, here, and here).  In an 18 month period, records show only one of Lopano's 24 trips resulted in new international passenger airline service to North Texas. But Fegan is quick to point out that landing just one new international flight makes all this spending worth it because, Fegan says, "the economic impact of one flight is $180 million."

DFW Airport may allow executives to travel in style, but we checked other airports around the country that are comparable in size.  The large international airports in Miami, Denver and Los Angeles all require their executives to choose economy class or the most "reasonable fare" for travel.  Even so, DFW told us there are many other airports that allow first class travel. 

Still, travelers and business people CBS 11 talked to were outraged.  After arriving at DFW, one former postal worker from California told us "those guys should lose their jobs." A businessman in the clothing industry on his way back to Chicago told us "we generally are in the back of the plane because in our world you are not going to spend the money to be in the front of the plane."
 
But the royal treatment in the air is nothing compared to the star treatment DFW Airport executives give themselves once they land.  In an email obtained by CBS11, an airport executive stated he had to stay at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco because there was no other hotel available close to his meetings.  According to the hotel's website, it's the only AAA five-diamond, Mobil 5-star hotel in the city.
 
When we showed Mr. Sullivan the email, he couldn't believe it. "No room at the inn?  Had to stay in the horrible Ritz Carlton.  Funny how that happened.  I guess the Motel 6 was booked up that night," Sullivan said.

CBS 11 found the same pattern on many trips. At a conference in Stockholm, Sweden, a hotel receipt shows you paid $250 for executives to play golf and $9 each for beers in the hotel mini bar every night. We found a dinner receipt from a pricey Swedish restaurant named Gondolen. We translated the receipt from Swedish to English and discovered they ate chanterelle mushroom soup at $15 a cup, drank $175 worth of the finest Italian wine and bought $45-a-plate fish.

On a different business trip to London, Vice President of Public Affairs Ken Capps paid $10,000 of your money to sit in the front of the plane.  Hours later he took another trip -- this time to the drug store, where he billed you for nearly $70 for lotions, chewing gum, Red Bull energy drinks and an electric razor.
 
But Fegan doesn't see a problem. He points out the travel policy allows executives to fly first and business class.  But that same policy says if the flight is five hours or less, staff must fly coach -- unless Fegan waives the policy.  Our investigation found more than a dozen first class trips lasting less than five hours, including a trip Fegan himself took from DFW to Austin. When we questioned him about it, he told us he didn't recall the reason he flew first class. Remember, that first class ticket cost you $800.  And he had to waive the policy on his own ticket to avoid violating DFW policy. 

Robin Lovin, a Harvard-educated professor of ethics at SMU, says there is some concern about DFW Airport's travel policy.  Lovin says, "it is not responsible to have a set of travel policies that are so out of line with good practice and other public agencies."
 
So for all this travel - what did we get? DFW didn't get Emirates or Singapore Airlines; both recently opted to fly into Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport. We did get KLM, which recently started daily service to Amsterdam but has already cut back its schedule. Despite the hard economic times, Fegan defends the spending and feels when it comes to the way the airport spends your money, DFW  "acted prudently." But Sullivan disagrees and has an idea for Fegan.  At a minimum Sullivan says Fegan "should write a really hefty check to DFW and reimburse them for this extravagant travel."

The DFW Board of Directors is ultimately responsible for the airport. The next board meeting takes place on September 30th. Click this link to learn more:  http://www.dfwairport.com/about/administration.php?ctnid=24646


If you have questions of your own, you can call DFW Airport's administrative offices at 972-574-6000, or you can email them at AirportInfoCenter@dfwairport.com. 

(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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