When you're doing business from Nicaragua to Macedonia, the frequent flyer miles add up. Too bad former Houston Airport System Director Richard Vacar apparently didn't use any to fund his February trip to Tripoli, Libya.

His airline ticket alone cost $10,547.

When my colleague Jennifer Peebles showed me this item among the documents she'd requested from the Houston Airport System, I was floored.

I'm a penny pincher who clips coupons and gets fare alerts delivered by e-mail, so a five-figure bill for one ticket made my eyebrows shoot up, especially after I realized that I along with the other city taxpayers paid for it.

Vacar's travel has come under scrutiny after he abruptly left the airport system last month and the mayor said he was ordering a review of a nonprofit Vacar ran, the Houston Airport System Development Corp.

Why was Vacar in Tripoli? The explanation in the records is fairly general, saying Vacar was accompanying "officials from the Houston Port Authority, Methodist Hospital, (Houston Airport System Development Corp.) and others for the purpose of developing business opportunities with Libya." Another page in the document says Vacar was to "assess airport financial risks and opportunities."

Vacar must have travelled first-class, definitely not in the cheap seats.

The trip can take 15 to 20-plus hours, depending on layovers. And no one enjoys being squished next to a stranger in coach, where the drinks may be weak, the air dank and the babies loud.

But more than $10,000 for one trip? By flying coach, Vacar could have purchased five tickets for the same trip.

Using the same days Vacar travelled, Saturday to Friday, I searched online for round-trip flights from IAH to TIP (Tripoli):
-- $1,779.60 for a coach ticket on KLM and Alitalia. An outgoing trip has a layover in Amsterdam, with return layovers in Rome and Amsterdam.
-- $8,592.93 for a business-class ticket on KLM, Air France, and Northwest Airlines. The return requires an overnight stay in Amsterdam.

Contact Lee Ann O'Neal at 713-980-9777 or leeann@texaswatchdog.org.

Photo of a Travelocity gnome by flickr user SAITOR, used via a Creative Commons license.