Let's say you've been named chief executive of Hewlett-Packard.

This isn't a stretch. The computer maker changes CEOs every year or so as its business declines.

Your job is to cut $3 billion to $3.5 billion in annual costs. This includes cutting 27,000 jobs.

Suddenly, you spot a department that generates tens of millions in annual operating costs. It is H-P's private air force—seven Gulfstream Vs, among the priciest corporate jets on the planet.

The question you face seems simple enough: Do you need all seven? But then you didn't go to Harvard Business School like H-P's latest CEO Meg Whitman. You have not been properly trained to realize that this amazing fleet could be yours.

You find used GVs for sale on the Internet for $22 million and up. You read that when billionaire Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban bought a GV for $40 million in 1999, it went down in the Guinness Book of Records as the "largest, single e-commerce transaction."

You learn that GVs can carry up to 16 people, but are typically configured to carry fewer to make room for amenities.

You find a December 2010 article in "Professional Pilot," a trade publication, which profiles H-P's "Fleet of 7 GVs." It counts 17 pilots, nine maintenance technicians, four flight attendants and four schedulers—all providing "world-class solutions for global corporate travel."

As CEO, you, like Ms. Whitman, would be permitted to use H-P's airline just about any time you wish. "The CEO may use HP aircraft for personal purposes," the company reports in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. "Personal use by…her direct reports…is permitted, subject to availability."

H-P's famously feckless directors and their spouses are allowed to use the planes as well when traveling to H-P events, H-P's filings say.

Last week, a prominent short seller said at a high-profile investor conference that he was betting against H-P stock, which has already lost more than half its value over the past year.

H-P's managers have used a string of acquisitions to hide the fact that they're in a declining business, said James Chanos of hedge fund Kynikos Associates. "They are destroying value," he declared.

So far, Ms. Whitman has been busy cutting everything but the jets.

"We operate in more than 170 countries," H-P said in response to my inquiry. "It's important that our teams be able to reach customers efficiently and securely.... While corporate aircraft are an expense to operate, they create time savings and other advantages."

The statement ended with this vague promise: "It is likely that as the company's needs evolve in the months ahead, H-P will reduce the number of aircraft it owns."

Research In Motion, the struggling maker of BlackBerry smartphones, recently decided to sell one of its two corporate jets for $6 million to $7 million (hey, it isn't a GV).

"We're…finding ways to reduce our travel while still making sure we keep in close contact with our partners around the world," the company recently told Bloomberg News.

In addition to announcing the largest payroll purge in
H-P's 73-year history, Ms. Whitman has done away with executive parking spaces and offices. Oh, the sacrifices this management team must make.

"The conversations over the cubicle are the conversations that really matter," Ms. Whitman boasted in a February interview. "You can see the teamwork already."

She is the CEO who sits in a cubicle, but she won't fly coach.

—Al Lewis is a columnist for Dow Jones Newswires in Denver. His email address is al.lewis@dowjones.com