Andrew Cuomo Cost Taxpayers $650K in Private Plane Journey

• Gov. Cuomo flew in a point out-owned non-public airplane over 460 situations in a 5-yr span, costing taxpayers approximately $650,000.
• A previous female aide reported the governor asked her to play strip poker with him on the plane.
• Cuomo has denied that allegation.
• See a lot more tales on Insider’s enterprise web site.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo often makes use of a condition-owned plane and helicopter to access the much corners of the state for official enterprise, costing taxpayers just about $650,000 from 2015 by means of April 2020, an Insider evaluation discovered.

Cuomo faces several ongoing scandals and a months-prolonged impeachment probe spurred by allegations of sexual misconduct from 10 women.

A single of the allegations in opposition to him associated the governor’s official condition airplane, known as King A person. Previous financial improvement aide Lindsey Boylan wrote in an essay that all through a flight in November 2017, Cuomo asked her to enjoy strip poker. Cuomo has denied that allegation, and his office disputed her assert that she was on your own with the governor, a condition trooper, and a press staffer.

Boylan, who is now functioning for Manhattan borough president, did not return Insider’s request for comment.

The governor also utilizes a personal plane for non-governmental journey which is compensated for by in-sort donations, a previous aide acquainted with his vacation styles and logistics explained to Insider.

Insider applied a checklist of state police planes and helicopters from the New York Condition Trooper’s internet site and tail wing numbers registered as New York Condition Police plane to establish the passenger aircraft product utilised by Cuomo.

By examining 5 a long time of the governor’s monthly public schedules, Insider identified that Cuomo flew in this state airplane over 460 times accruing some 400 hours of whole flight time more than 5 several years.

The Cuomo administration has not yet responded to Insider in its Liberty of Data Law request for monetary records detailing his air journey charges. A Cuomo spokesperson referred Insider’s list of inquiries to New York Condition Law enforcement.

Nel Stubbs, Vice President at Conklin & de Decker, an aircraft current market intelligence and consulting corporation, estimates that this aircraft design expenses $1,616 for every hour to work, according to her company’s database. This figure is calculated utilizing estimated gasoline price tag, plane servicing, landing service fees, and crew incidental costs not which includes salary.

Flight crew income, insurance plan, or the charge to keep the plane in its Albany hangar, having said that, are not bundled.

‘It is nuts old. Terrifying to fly on it.’

The twin propeller airplane made use of by Cuomo has had numerous safety scares, with the governor’s business office pushing in current a long time for an up-to-date fleet of aircrafts they share with New York State Law enforcement.

“It is really mad previous,” the previous aide told Insider, recalling dicey flights that still left newcomers on King 1 thoroughly spooked. “Terrifying to fly on it.”

One particular of the helicopters had to make an emergency landing in 2017 following the cockpit began filling with smoke, in accordance to area news reports at the time.

As a general apply, Cuomo takes advantage of the chopper for visits downstate to New York Metropolis, Extensive Island, or the Hudson Valley, in accordance to the previous staffer. If an function is outside of those areas or within driving length in the Money Location encompassing Albany, the governor requires King Just one.

Nevertheless, the flight information attained by Insider display some flights as quick as 15 minutes without the need of a return journey. King One’s return to the hangar from these visits ended up not factored into Insider’s price estimate analysis.

The time preserving of air journey in a point out as significant as New York is substantial, significantly when it will come to the much flung metropolitan areas and towns across the Upstate area.

Cuomo’s flights from Albany to New York Metropolis have been ordinarily around 40 to 45 minutes, even though driving a motorcade into the city would take between two and a half to a few hours. For a vacation west to Buffalo, flying usually takes a minor more than an hour, even though the one particular way vacation by motor vehicle would consider at least 4 several hours.

The governor’s vacation occasionally arrived in bursts, these types of as on April 21, 2020, when he flew from Albany to Buffalo, then from Buffalo to Washington D.C., and then back again from the nation’s funds to Albany.

If the primary chopper identified as Sikorsky is going through servicing or repairs, an older helicopter identified as Bell 430 is made use of as a substitute, the former aide mentioned.

“I swore never to fly on that helicopter again,” Melissa DeRosa, Cuomo’s top rated aide who has been implicated in allegedly manipulating facts on COVID-19 nursing household fatalities, instructed the Wall Avenue Journal in 2017 when she was serving as his main of personnel. 

“Sadly, offered the demanding agenda we hold, it is not genuinely an option.”