The federal government's efforts to drive down the near half billion dollar public service travel bill comes as the Defence Department spent more than $155 million on domestic and international flights last financial year.
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New Finance Department figures show Defence topped the whole of government travel bill in 2015-16, with the massive department's 58,000 public servants and serving Australian Defence Force personnel spending a combined $155.4 million on travel, more than the next four highest spending departments combined.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, home to more than 6200 public servants and Australia's overseas diplomatic corps, spent $37.51 million in the period, just ahead of Immigration and Border Protection with $36.52 million.
Fairfax Media reported last month the calendar year bill for 2016 topped out at $427 million, up by as much as $50 million since the Coalition came to government in the 2013-14 financial year.
Treasury spent $31.5 million in 2015-16, ahead of Attorney-General's at $28.4 million and Human Services at $27.7 million.
Also in the top ten highest spending departments were Industry, Innovation and Science at $26.6 million, Health at $14.1 million, Prime Minister and Cabinet at $11.6 million and Agriculture and Water Resources at $10.1 million.
Finance, responsible for administering the system and keeping costs down, came in at number 16 with $4.5 million, while the departments responsible for running Parliament spent the least, with a combined $1.06 million.
"These figures include travel by public servants, defence force personnel... and other travel sponsored by the Commonwealth," a Finance Department spokeswoman said.
Established in July 2010, the public service-wide system makes the federal government the largest spender on air travel in Australia, ahead of miners BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, the big four banks and the country's largest consulting firms.
Not included in the figures are the massive travel costs for members of Parliament, government ministers and their staff.
Domestic flights make up more than 60 per cent of the cost.
The top domestic routes flown by government travellers include Sydney-Canberra, Melbourne-Canberra and Canberra-Brisbane. Internationally, the top routes include Perth-Christmas Island, Sydney-Los Angeles and Sydney-Singapore.
The government's ongoing cost saving efforts have seen public servants counselled to reconsider any spending on travel, especially where the use of video conferencing and other technology can be effective. Government-wide guidelines require public servants to "book like a private traveller", seeking cheaper, less flexible fares wherever possible and to buy the lowest practical airline fare - the cheapest ticket that suits the "practical business needs of the traveller".
Separate figures provided to Senate estimates committees last month showed Prime Minister and Cabinet spent $5.28 million between January and December 2016, including some travel for non-departmental staff. In the same period, the Veterans' Affairs Department spent $3.5 million on flights, including booking and other fees.
Public servants, staffers and other employees from 150 government entities are part of the system, which includes more than 100,000 travellers every year and sees everything from VIP travel to budget flights and group travel discounting.
Tickets can be booked from a panel of 18 airlines, including Qantas, Virgin, Jetstar, Regional Express, Air New Zealand, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Emirates, Air Niugini, Etihad and Singapore Airlines.
