Gov. Nikki Haley is in Europe this week, but she's not taking in the sights. Instead, she's trying to market the state to aircraft suppliers.
Haley is attending the Farnborough International Air Show near London. She and a delegation from the state Commerce Department are trying to attract more companies similar to Boeing to do business with South Carolina. In fact, the state's success with Boeing is a selling point.
The South Carolina group includes at least 20 people. A similar trip to Paris led to a sizeable controversy last year. The state spent $158,000 on that trip. It prompted some to question if the spending produced anything of value.
As criticism from that trip amped up, Haley said an effort was made to cut costs on these economic development trips.
"What we saw was that Commerce was taking a lot of people and so we had a conversation with Commerce and said, 'Okay, who really needs to go' and Commerce not only trimmed down who they were taking -- and a lot of that is private funds -- and there are a lot of people paying their own way and I think that is a perfect example of when you try and do things you do it with the best effort, but when you see you can do it better you try and do that as well," Haley said.
Haley is taking along one staff member this year, compared to two last year. Her husband Michael did not go along this time, but she has two security guards with her.
Boeing, by the way, could be the big story out of the air show. Reuters reports the company has won a $7.2 billion order for 75 of its 737 max jets. The company is also locked in a head-to-head battle with Airbus, which recently announced a major expansion in Alabama.
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