NEW: Loeffler Has Taken “Taxpayer-Backed Commercial Flights” Despite Her Private Jet

Loeffler’s claims to “save taxpayer money” with her private jet yet another broken promise as the unelected senator spends thousands on commercial flights 

ATLANTA — A new report from Salon today reveals that unelected “political mega-donor” Senator Kelly Loeffler “has taken at least two dozen taxpayer-backed commercial flights…back and forth to Washington after claiming her personal airplane was an asset that benefited the people she served.”

Despite Loeffler’s original claims that her secretive private jet — which may also be a “flying tax shelter” thanks to Republicans’ tax giveaway to the wealthy — would “save taxpayer money,” Loeffler has billed taxpayers for thousands of dollars worth of commercial flights over the past several months.

But even as she continues flying commercial at taxpayer expense, Loeffler is happy to use her tax write-off of a private jet for other purposes, like “an 18-minute hop from a central Georgia town to Savannah, on the Atlantic coast” for her struggling campaign.

“It’s no surprise that Senator Kelly Loeffler has broken yet another promise to put Georgians first — and instead has flown herself around at taxpayers’ expense when she doesn’t feel like gassing up her private jet,” said Alex Floyd, spokesman for the Democratic Party of Georgia. “But while Senator Loeffler takes taxpayer money for herself, she has spent months fighting against critical relief measures like unemployment insurance expansion for Georgians.”

Read more about Loeffler’s latest broken promise to Georgia:

Salon: Kelly Loeffler says she uses private jet to save taxpayers, but took publicly-funded flights

• Three days after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution broke a story in which a spokesperson for Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., said she used her private jet to “save taxpayer money,” the unelected Republican took a taxpayer-funded commercial flight from Atlanta to Washington. Three days later, she took another one home.

• In all, Loeffler has taken at least two dozen taxpayer-backed commercial flights between back and forth to Washington after claiming her personal airplane was an asset that benefited the people she served, according to biannual reports published by the secretary of the Senate.

• In all, Loeffler’s airfare cost taxpayers $3,665.45, a sum that would likely be substantially higher in a normal year, as the steep drop in demand brought about by the coronavirus pandemic has forced major airlines to make dramatic price cuts.

• Loeffler’s expense reports show a significant difference in cost between trips taken in the months of May and June, when airfares had cratered, suggesting that Loeffler has not always flown in coach class, as she has claimed.

• Loeffler has also used her private jet for campaign-related trips as short as an 18-minute hop from a central Georgia town to Savannah, on the Atlantic coast.

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