Just days after urging state employees to car pool to work, Gov. Steve Beshear flew 16 members of his administration on three airplanes — one of them chartered — to Pikeville for a town hall meeting.

The flights cost at least $7,088 in air services, according to data provided by Beshear press secretary Cathy Lindsey. Several other administration employees drove the approximately 350-mile trip to the first stop on the governor’s “Beshear About Kentucky” tour, which has been criticized by some as an effort to boost the governors standing among the public.

The trip was the first of 13 stops on what Beshear has said is a “listening tour” to hear concerns of voters around the state. Lindsey said flying to Pikeville “saved several hours of drive time and thus work time.” She said representatives of every cabinet made the trip and flying “easily saved 100 hours of work time if not more.”

The calculation of cost was based on allocated costs for two state planes and an Air Lexington, Central Kentucky charter flight — all based on 1.1 hours of flight time.

The governor typically flies in a Kentucky State Police King Airplane, but he took a second state plane and added the chartered plane in order to take cabinet secretaries and other administration officials. Those two additional planes, according to Lindsey, cost $5,768 while the King Air cost allocation was $1,320, making the total $7,088.

Beshear was out of the office Friday and unavailable for comment, but Cabinet Secretary Larry Hayes, who flew to Pikeville, said the cost was outweighed by the exposure of cabinet secretaries and staff to people and their problems in Pike County. Without such trips, Hayes said, it’s easy to become isolated in Frankfort.

“It’s invaluable for cabinet secretaries to get out and meet the people of Pike County and even more important for the people to have access to them,” he said. And he said flying was ultimately more efficient than driving.

“Do you know what it would’ve cost to drive everybody down there?” Hayes asked. “I can tell you this — we worked yesterday afternoon and we worked this morning.” Hayes said, by flying, he was able to keep a 2:30 p.m. appointment Thursday and an 8:30 a.m. appointment on Friday.

Steve Robertson, chairman of the Republican Party of Kentucky, said it is ironic Beshear last week asked state employees to carpool “but then took three planes to Pikeville. What a joke.

“I understand he stood in the room and talked about the dire financial crisis in Frankfort, but he’s chartering three planes to fly to Pike County,” he said. “I think it’s a complete joke that he’s out there on a tour to rebuild his image and rehabilitate himself for the fall campaign and uses three planes to do it.”

Hayes and Lindsey said the trip provided the governor and his cabinet secretaries a chance to hear about drug concerns and highway needs in the southeastern Kentucky community.

“We heard in detail about the scourge of drug use and its impact on families and the workforce,” said Lindsey, who traveled by automobile to the meeting. “We saw in person some of the road and transportation needs still prevalent in that part of eastern Kentucky.”

She said taxpayers “expect their public servants to work a full day. As a result, the decision to use air travel or cars depends upon what is most efficient and effective in terms of time and money.”

Lindsey said Air Lexington provided the most cost-effective charter flight of several vendors, which regularly work for the state.

The Associated Press reported that 400 or so turned out for the event Thursday night in Pikeville. The next town hall is scheduled for Monday night in Somerset. Hayes said Friday he intends to drive to that one but will fly to others farther away. Lindsey said the additional cost for the two extra planes was worth what administration officials learned in Pikeville.

“We believe more than $5,768 of value was gained by listening to the people of eastern Kentucky for more than two hours,” she said.

Ronnie Ellis writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. Reach him at rellis@cnhi.com.