[edcoil]

I appreciate two only for the president however on trips like this 100’s of staff go as well.

[Dinah Lord]

Don't forget than planeload of reporters:

Obama will be traveling with a plane full of journalists, and at least 200 have applied to come on the trip, though only about 40 will be able to go. The big names will be along for the ride too: top newspaper reporters and network nightly news anchors Brian William, Charles Gibson and Katie Couric.

http://tinyurl.com/658bwc

[OldDeckHand]

"I appreciate two only for the president however on trips like this 100’s of staff go as well."

I vaguely remember this trip. Was this the one where he didn't visit just one country, but several, and it came on the tail-end of his Presidency? If so, I could see a number of cargo planes being used to pre-position SS and their vehicles at the different destination points.

I thought you meant 12 747 passenger planes. Which could carry in excess of 2400 people, depending on their configuration. The President and a hundred staff could easily be accommodated by one VC-25 and one or two C-32 (the plane the VP usually uses).