Joe Biden Dropped More than One Million Dollars on Private Jets in Last Three Months of 2019

Former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign spared no travel expense, dropping more than one million dollars on private air charters in the last three months of 2019 alone.

Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings released late Friday show that Biden shelled out 14 payments, totaling more than one million dollars, to Advanced Aviation. He made the payments between October 1 and December 31, 2019—the end of the fourth quarter FEC filing deadline.

Advanced Aviation, which is located near the $20,000 per month Georgia-style mansion Biden rents in Virginia, bills itself as providing “presidential level services.” It is an expensive fleet, ranging from helicopters to luxury airliners that can seat hundreds and is favored by a number of other Democrat presidential candidates.

None, though, have likely spent as much on the company’s services as Biden. Even before the fourth quarter numbers were made public, the former vice president had already shelled out more than $1.2 million to the company for its services. The sum was spent between the time Biden announced his campaign in late April through the end of September, averaging roughly $240,000 per month. In that same period, only former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg came close to matching Biden, spending nearly $750,000 on private charters.

In total, with the new numbers, the former vice president has spent more than $2.2 million on private air travel since jumping into the 2020 race. Biden continued paying for Advanced Aviation’s services even as his campaign has spent more than it raised throughout the fourth quarter.

Biden’s taste for luxury travel was first displayed on the speaking tour he undertook upon leaving the Obama administration. As the New York Times reported in January 2019, Biden often demanded, as part of the speaking engagement, that a private jet ferry him to and from the venue.

For one such speech at the University of Utah, Biden’s public relations teams requested an additional $10,000—on top of his $100,000 appearance fee—to accommodate his travel requirements.

Biden’s “contract with the University of Utah, obtained through the state’s freedom of information act, was for $100,000, plus $10,000 for the private plane,” the Times reported. “In an October email between university officials, one told the other that an agent for Mr. Biden had described that as a discount.”