Public servants took nearly 7000 flights between Australia, Port Moresby and Manus Island in the 2015-16 financial year, part of more than $10m in government travel related to immigration detention.
New figures from the whole of government travel bill show the most popular flight route for public servants was Canberra to Sydney, flown 176,916 times while Sydney to Los Angeles topped international travel, flown more than 3150 times in the period.
Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon accused the Turnbull government of misusing public money, calling out 6981 flights between Australia and the Papua New Guinea mainland and from Port Moresby and Manus Island.
There were nearly 3000 flights from the PNG capital to Manus, currently home to about 800 men in immigration limbo.
A further 4000 flights took place between Port Moresby and Brisbane and Cairns, many from other parts of the government and unrelated to immigration.
Flights to Port Moresby, Manus and Christmas Island cost taxpayers $10.59 million in 2015-16.
Spending within the government's centralised travel system cost taxpayers half a billion dollars 2015-16, topped by the Defence Department with $155 million in costs for domestic and international flights.
The Immigration Department's travel costs totalled $36.5 million, less than the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade which spent $37.51 million.
Travel between Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne consistently tops the most flown routes, while there were about 42,000 flights between Brisbane and Townsville and 38,000 between Adelaide and Canberra in the period.
The most flown overseas routes included Sydney to major international connection hubs of Los Angeles, Singapore and Dallas/Fort Worth.
There were nearly 2000 flights between each of Sydney and Bangkok, Melbourne and Dubai and Melbourne and Singapore.
The Perth to Christmas Island route fell from the top 10 most flown routes in 2015-16.
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.
Senator Rhiannon used Senate estimates hearing to grill Finance Department officials about government travel costs. Since coming to government, the Coalition has sought to reduce spending on travel.
"This is another example of the Turnbull government misusing public money," she said.
"Most people would be critical of the steep rise in travel costs as it certainly does not represent value for money.
The NSW Green challenged the Coalition to do more to rein in excessive public service travel and perks.
"This government is fond of telling people they need to tighten their belts, but is allowing its travel costs to balloon out with thousands of flights a year to Manus Island, which has become synonymous with abuse of asylum seekers," she said.
"This reeks of hypocrisy. It is another example of how far this government is out of step with community expectations."
Official guidelines for taxpayer-funded travel require public servants to "book like a private traveller", seek less flexible fares, and buy only the cheapest ticket that suits the "practical business needs of the traveller".
This week Fairfax Media reported running Australia's offshore immigration detention program has cost the federal government at least $5 billion since 2012.
Top 5 domestic routes
Canberra - Sydney: 176,916 trips
Canberra - Melbourne: 164,584 trips
Brisbane - Canberra: 82,294 trips
Melbourne - Sydney: 73,813 trips
Brisbane - Sydney: 61,328 trips
Top 5 international routes
Sydney - Los Angeles: 3159 trips
Sydney - Singapore: 2850 trips
Port Moresby - Manus Island: 2694 trips
Sydney - Dallas/Fort Worth: 2633
Brisbane - Port Moresby: 2366
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