CBS Colorado reports not one, not two, but nine executives from Denver Airport flew to Madrid, Spain for a conference, all buying business class tickets with United Airlines at a cost of up to $19,000 per ticket. Is this a proper use of taxpayer funds?

Denver Airport Executives Live High On the Hog: Buy $19K Business Class Tickets For “Conference” In Spain

CBS Colorado caught up with Denver Airport CEO Phil Washington, who justified his own attendance, plus eight staff members, at the Passenger Terminal Expo conference on April 8-9, 2025 in Madrid, explaining that the savings that will be implemented as a result of the conference will more than offset the pricey airline tickets (he provided no specifics).

Why such expensive business class tickets?

“Our travel agent booked it that way because the policy allowed it.”

Washington also emphasized that his team had to get off the plane and work:

“You gotta hit the ground running. You literally go from the plane to a meeting or a conference or whatever. So for this reason, this is allowed in our travel policy and we did it.”

But CBS found that every one of Denver Airport executives landed on April 7th in the morning and the conference did not start until April 8th (so much for hitting the ground running…). Then they flew back on Friday April 11th, the day after the conference ended.

Except for Chief of Staff Maria Meleandez. She spent another two weeks in Europe before flying home…in business class. That violated the Airport’s travel policy, which allows no more than two days to be tacked onto a work trip preiseely to discourage taxpayer money to be used to position officials to take personal vacations.

All told, Devner Airport spent more than $165.000 for this trip…now Washington says the Airport will “review the policies” going far.

I appreciate this exposé…it’s local journalism at its finest.

The Scam Of Conferences

Everyone loves business trips because it’s a way fly in luxury using other people’s money…it a sham. These folks arrived the day before the conference and left the day after, on a Friday, with two days off upon arrival. There was absolutely no valid reason for them to fly in business class when using taxpayer dollars, particularly when tickets cost that much.

Folks, I don’t know whether the executives at DIA are Democrats or Republicans (the positions are non-partisan) and goodness knows I saw a lot of travel waste on both sides of the aisle when I worked on Capitol Hill.

Even so, this plays right into the “drain the swamp” mantra that helped shape the 2024 race the way it did. It may be that the cure is worse than the disease (time will tell), but this sort of thing is what drives folks to say F-it and vote for radical change.

Government officials should not be buying full-fare business class tickets on the taxpayer dime…full stop. Private corporations can treat their employees as they want, and of course, arriving well-rested is a benefit. But for a public entity like Denver Airport, it’s a really bad look and we all know that any “fact-finding” trip that would justify $165K in savings does not pass the smell test…

CONCLUSION

Conferences should not be taxpayer-funded vacations for public officials who live high on the hog with your money. It’s disgusting…maybe the Denver Airport should reach out to me and let me book their travel. I mean, come you idiots, an airport as large as Denver must rack up hundreds of thousands and likely millions of credit card points per month with basic expenses. Everyone of those United tickets could have been purchased with points.

But you can bet that Washington and his staff all love their 1K or Global Services status from a United hub airport and will do anything they can to ensure that continues…”because the travel rules allow it.”

Is my burst of populism reasonable or should taxpayers ensure that public executives are “well-rested” when they fly?

image: United Airlines