The state of Wyoming’s two jets were busy in 2024, shuttling 2,460 passengers 161,954 miles on a total of 780 flights through Dec. 13.
The use of these planes has come under scrutiny lately with some questioning whether the state needs to own two.
The Wyoming Department of Transportation was the biggest department user of the aircraft, navigating 280 trips over 214 days. Second was the governor’s office, coming in at 200 trips.
For the sake of this story, Cowboy State Daily considered any flight between two destinations a full trip.
Where Are They Going And Who’s On Them?
In-state travel was by far the biggest destination for those using the state’s two Cessna Citation jets.
The jets exist in order to allow state officials to get to certain destinations around the state much more quickly than they would by car.
Gov. Mark Gordon took 217 trips throughout the year on the jets, usually accompanied by his policy director Randall Luthi.
Most of the governor’s trips were within Wyoming, making multiple stops per day.
He also took trips to Arizona, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Illinois, California, Utah, Colorado, Idaho and Nevada.
Gordon also hopped on planes with members of the Oil and Gas Commission, Wyoming Business Council and Wyoming Supreme Court.
State Board Members As Well …
Members of a few state boards also used the planes, usually to travel to meetings. Often, members of the board were picked up at various locations around the state, not unlike a school bus picking kids up for school.
For instance, members of the Wyoming Board of Medicine took a state plane that made stops in Casper, Sheridan and Rock Springs to pick up members for their meeting in Cheyenne to avoid traveling the snowy roads. The next day, they took a similar trip back.
They arranged a similar trip for their meeting in late April.
The Industrial Siting Council did the same for meetings they held in July and October. The council also took a trip to Casper in September where it picked up a few of its members around the state on the way to an event.
Kimberly Mazza, public information supervisor for the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality, said the council uses the state plane to attend permit hearings and council meetings that directly address specific permit issues. The permittees pay for the council members' travel that is required to obtain and maintain a permit.
Cody resident Bruce McCormack was on a few of these flights himself for Aeronautics Commission meetings, of which he is the chair. He said offering these trips to state board members has been a longstanding practice in Wyoming and that the use of these planes has been studied numerous times by the Legislature.
“It’s an efficiency thing,” he said. “It really helps getting people to meetings and back home in a fast and safe way.”
State Rep. John Bear, R-Gillette, said he’s not sure if the use of these planes by state board members is appropriate but does acknowledge that it’s difficult to find people to fill these roles.
The University of Wyoming used the planes 85 times throughout the year, including flying down former Wyoming Senator Al Simpson and his family on Aug. 22 for the opening of the Alan K. Simpson Center of Clinical and Experiential Learning on campus.
The school also flew their board of trustees down from Cody and Jackson to their meeting in Laramie in late September.
Members of the Legislature’s Energy Council took trips on the state planes to North Dakota and Oklahoma throughout the year.
Questions Remain
Bear has been one of the most vocal voices in questioning whether the state needs two jets. He’s consistently advocated for selling one of the state’s jets to reduce costs, and questions whether the amount of flight time taking place warrants having two of the aircraft.
“Would the state be better off investing in the commercial aviation part of our economies, which always seem to suffer from a lack of business?” he questioned.
Bear also wonders if it would be less expensive and more reliable to charter private planes instead of paying for two crews, fuel and maintenance of the state’s current fleet.
“We could easily charter flights during the down time for maintenance of the one jet,” he said. “As our revenue outlook diminishes, we should be looking for solutions that save the taxpayers’ hard-earned money.”
Rep. Landon Brown, chair of the House Transportation Committee, told Cowboy State Daily last month he believes it would be more expensive for the state to pursue this option and that the planes actually save the state money when compared to other modes of travel.
According to WYDOT, the two planes combined cost $2.4 million to run in both 2022 and 2023. It’s budgeted about $1.2 million each for the planes in 2024 and the same amount in 2025 as well.
The state of Wyoming purchased the jets for $14.6 million in 2002 during former Gov. Jim Geringer’s administration and when the dot-com financial bubble burst. McCormack said Simpson was instrumental in bringing an adjustment to the federal severance tax disbursals that allowed Wyoming to be able to afford these planes.
“The whole state should be proud of Al for helping make that permanent funding increase happen,” McCormack said, “part of the first use of which was buying those two jets.”
Leo Wolfson can be reached at leo@cowboystatedaily.com.
