'Backup Plane' Regularly Accompanies Former CEO Jeff Immelt On Business Trips, He Says Without His Knowledge

GE executives, including former CEO Jeff Immelt, routinely had an extra jet accompany them on trips, a fact that the company kept from the its board of directors.

According to a report from Fox Business, during much of his 16-year tenure, Immelt had an extra jet fly to his destinations, but the company sharply curbed the practice in 2014, according to the report, and ended it completely when Immelt's successor John Flannery grounded the entire fleet of corporate aircraft as part of a broader cost-cutting measure.

The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources, reported in October that Immelt had used the extra on some overseas trips. After that report was published, GE's current management informed the board of directors about the practice. After 2014, the extra jet was only dispatched when an executive was traveling to high-risk destinations.

Immelt told the Wall Street Journal that he was not aware that there was a second plane following him on some trips. He said in an emailed statement that it was a practice he would not have allowed.

The two-plane trips continued on a limited basis for as long as at least the spring of 2017, according to the report. Flannery now plans to sell GE's corporate aircraft and require company executives to use commercial or charter flights.

In a statement, a GE spokeswoman said that the practice, which has been discontinued, "involved business-critical itineraries with tight schedules, multiple international stops and, in most cases, security concerns.

"We do not believe that the understandable criticism of this discontinued practice fairly reflects on (Immelt's) dedicated service to GE for over 30 years."

FMI: Original Report