Tuesday, December 02, 2008

Auto-Makers: So What's Your Story Re Corporate Jets?

Last I heard, the worthies who run Ford, GM and Chrysler were insisting that using corporate jets to fly to Washington to beg for a $25 billion taxpayer bailout, as they all did last month, was absolutely necessary because of efficiency, productivity and (snort) security.

Now we have this Mulally of Ford setting out today in a car for the long drive to the capital for a new grovel session tomorrow.

Hel-loooo: There is a way more efficient means of getting from Detroit to Washington than driving a Ford or swanning in on a $50 million Gulfstream.

It's called commercial air service. It's all the rage.

Somebody, please flag down Mulally at the Interstate rest stop and tell him the roundtrip coach fare between Detroit and Washington (nonstop flying time 97 minutes) is available at last-minute purchase today for $222 on AirTran and US Airways; $296 on Continental and $312 on Delta and United.

He can even fly Detroit's own, soon-to-disappear airline, Northwest. But the fare is $1,225 -- and you can't blame that disparity on the autoworkers wages.

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