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Scandal: Denver Airport Manager drops 165,000 US dollars with 19,000 US dollars flights on Madrid Trip

Scandal: Denver Airport Manager drops 165,000 US dollars with 19,000 US dollars flights on Madrid Trip

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The managers at the Denver International Airport (the) are criticized on a recent working trip to Madrid, where they spent between USD 9,000 and $ 19,000 per person for tickets to get there (thanks to Zen for marking them). Is the criticism justified or is there so much well received by nothing?

The very expensive journey of Denver Airport to a conference in Spain

CBS News Colorado, like the CEO of Denver International Airport, Phillip Washington, and its eight top executives flew to Madrid for a three-day airport terminal conference in April 2025. All nine flew either for the first or business class on all legs.

What causes public outrage is how much you spent on your tickets, as was discovered in the Open Records Act by Colorado. The airport financing naturally comes from what passengers paid for concessions, parking fees, rental car income and much more.

The team spent a total of 165,000 US dollars for the trip or an average of $ 18,000 per traveler, including flights, hotels, meals, conference costs and soil transport. What causes the most trouble in public is how much was spent on flights. The cheapest ticket cost over 9,000 US dollars, while the most expensive ticket cost over 19,000 US dollars. Yes, this is only for flights between Denver and Madrid.

The managers of the airport have defended themselves, with Washington explained that “our politics enables this to do this” and to say: “You have to run the ground, you literally go from the plane to a meeting or a conference or whatever. However. CBS points out that you have landed the day before your conference started (that does not mean that you had no discussions on this day).

The CEO's chief of staff was also criticized for violating the guidelines for the employee trip, with which employees can add their working trip a maximum of two working days to prevent employees from using employment trips as a starting point for a long vacation. But that was exactly what she did when she returned from Europe just two weeks later.

When Washington was confronted with it, he said: “I knew nothing about the rule”, and that “we will take care of it accordingly, we will take care of it.” Since Washington and most of the team returned home on a Friday, he was asked whether they could not fly home more economically because they had a weekend in front of them, and he replied: “The guideline allowed that, so we explained this.”

Washington also defended the decision by saying: “These costs may seem high, they are an investment in our employees” and “We have sent who we sent and you will pay dividends if we build this infrastructure.”

My view of these controversy to the executive of the airport

So I can see both sides here somehow, and I think this reflects the bigger problem that exists today with so many travel guidelines.

To honor the airport leadership, it does not seem inappropriate for them to fly business class on a working trip in overseas. In addition, business class tickets are often very expensive, and so airlines generally achieve a large part of their profits (the 500 dollar economic tickets that they sell in the Atlantic, basically only “gas money”). Heck, airports even benefit from these high tariffs, because they allow airlines to start long -distance routes, also according to Denver.

In addition, there are obviously many potential tasks for airport managers who take part in a conference like this, as this could lead to new airports to start the airport, and this could have a positive effect on ten million.

On the other hand, when you step back, this type of absurdity gets so many corporate travel policy. Often the guideline only stipulates which service class you can fly in, regardless of the costs or nobody that you choose the cheapest routing if it is slightly less convenient.

So they end up in a situation in which they book a ticket of 19,000 US dollars. “Well, our guideline says that I can, and that costs the ticket, so I book it.” The employees prevent the fact that it is a rounding error to their end anyway, and nobody will notice it. The joys to spend the money of other peoples.

I imagine if each of the people had been cited the cost of the ticket that you have booked in the end and that you could get 25% of what you saved in cash if you booked a cheaper ticket, things would have looked very different. There must be more reform of corporate travel policy if you ask me and I think this incident is the perfect example of why.

But I hardly think that the people from Denver Airport act alone in this direction. I would say that the people who actually do their best to save their employer benefit for travel expenses if they have no direct incentive to do so, the exception and not the norm. Well, I assume that it can be argued that you (in any way) work public servants for people, and that makes it completely deaf. I can imagine that people have different income from where airport executives fall on the private and the public spectrum.

This is one of the reasons why many airlines have used frequent flyers. They literally try to make business travelers book more expensive tickets to collect more rewards.

How sad to spend 19,000 dollars for this type of catering (probably!)

Conclusion

After a recent trip to participate in a conference in Madrid, the leaders of the airport in Denver are 165,000 US dollars equipped with expenses, with flight tickets from $ 9,000 each to $ 19,000 each.

Do I think you could have booked cheaper tickets and should have done it? Absolutely! Am I surprised that people who work for an organization that dictates the class of travel but not spent any costs for flights just because they could? Absolutely not …

What do you do with this controversy of the airport in Denver Airport?

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