As the 2008 Presidential election heats up, you just may have noticed a proliferation of criss-crossing private jet contrails in the skies above our nation. The presidential candidates (and their ample staffs) are scurrying across the country from stump speeches in high school gymnasiums on one coast, to $10,000-a-plate fundraising dinners at the homes of wealthy supporters on the other, often in the same day. In the age of the 24-hour news cycle, private jets have become the unsung workhorses of U.S. presidential politics.

So just how are the candidates getting around? In the campaign’s early stages, small- to mid-size jets seem to be the rule. Senator John Edwards has been frequently seen alighting from a Hawker 800. Former Governor Mitt Romney and Senator Hillary Clinton have both favored a number of Gulfstream models (rumor has it that Mrs. Clinton demands no less than a G-III.).

Senator Barack Obama relies on charters for his travel needs, though such flights aren’t without incident. Last November his chartered Gulfstream II landed in Des Moines, Iowa. The problem? It was supposed to land in Cedar City, some 100 miles away, where the Senator was expected at an event. In January, another chartered Gulfstream II carrying Obama and campaign staffers clipped the wing of a parked Cessna at Chicago’s Midway Airport as the candidate was returning to his home base after a campaign swing through Nevada.

During the final stages of the election, the front-runners typically adopt an official campaign jet, a wide-bodied model decorated with the candidate’s standard-issue red, white and blue logo. The Clinton camp made the switch in January and chartered a Boeing 737-800 to better accommodate the large staff, and slew of reporters, traveling with her campaign. On the first trip, Clinton dubbed the plane “Hill Force One.” Make no mistake, the candidate always sits in first class; the reporters on the other hand make due with coach.

Given the high cost of private jet travel, traveling expenses represent a significant portion of most campaign budgets. The Center for Responsive Politics has found that in the early stages of the 2008 campaign, travel amounted to seven percent of the total amount spent by candidates. That percentage is likely to go up now that a much exploited loop hole, which allowed candidates to fly on the corporate jets of their wealthy donors for the price of first class ticket, has been closed by Congress. Some candidates, like former New York mayor, Rudy Giuliani, have chosen to continue flying on their friends’ corporate jets, reimbursing them at the full market rate for the flight.

How do the candidates’ private aviation choices stack up value-wise against the potential options? A candidate traversing the nation ahead of the primaries would quickly burn through a jet card that sells flight time in 25 hour blocks, but fractional ownership could fit their needs. Then again, the surest bet might be to own an aircraft outright, like potential candidate Michael Bloomberg. If the billionaire mayor decides to toss his hat into the race, we’ll likely see his Dassault Falcon 900 descending in the next primary state.

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