Former Alberta premier Alison Redford appears to be caught up in another travel scandal and the opposition is calling for a criminal investigation into allegations of government aircraft abuse.

A report is circulating that says Redford’s staff blocked others from flying on government planes with her.

The report says an internal auditor general review found that the former premier’s staff would book all the seats on government planes when she was flying and then would remove all of the so called "false passengers" shortly before the planes departed.

Duane Bratt, a political scientist at Mount Royal University, says this goes beyond politics.

“I think the RCMP needs to be called in. I ask that question, what's the difference between Mike Duffy padding his expenses and creating a false manifest so you can fly alone, repeatedly, one after the other, this is a pattern of behaviour, this isn't a one off,” said Bratt. “Imaginary passengers so she could fly alone with her daughter, that’s under a whole new scale.”

Bratt says he’s not surprised at the news and says it could be considered fraud.  “Yea, I think so and I think the police need to be called in to ascertain that. I’m not a cop and I’m not a lawyer but it looks like it to me.”

He says the news doesn’t help the PC Party and that they have a lot of questions to answer.

“It’s been a bad two days. First the government, which excludes the three leadership contenders, rescinds a pay freeze on senior staff and then this comes out and throughout the leadership campaign all three of them have tried to distance themselves as much as they can from Redford as possible and now it’s thrown back in their face again. Where was Thomas Lukaszuk when this was going on? Where was Ric McIver? They’re around the cabinet table. Are you saying that the cabinet was totally clueless that any of this sort of activity is going on?  And if that’s the case, why didn’t they know? Were they simply a rubber stamp for the premier? Do we have a system of government where there’s only one person in charge? Where’s the accountability,” said Bratt.

Bratt tweeted Thomas Lukuszak on Tuesday asking about the ‘ghost flights.’

Lukuszak also posted a response to the allegations on his Facebook page saying…

Today, through a leak from the Auditor General's Office we have learned about yet another alleged expense and travel impropriety by the previous Premier. Like me, Albertans are frustrated with the display of apparent disregard for taxpayers' money and for the dignity of the Premier's Office. Like me, Albertans must be wondering what more is there to be seen.

Albertans should not have to wonder what more is there to be seen. Albertans have the right to know. As such, if chosen premier, I will immediately undertake to do the following:

1 Recommend to our Caucus that the MLA for Calgary Elbow be removed from the PC Caucus, as the conduct displayed by that member is not reflective of the PC party's and Caucus' code of conduct and values.

2. I will request that a independent legal expert (retired Judge) review all expenses and travel arrangements of the above MLA and determine if any laws were broken.
If any laws were indeed broken, the MLA will be treated like any Albertan and that information will be dealt with by the Justice system.

The Alberta Party weighed in on the allegations and says Premier Hancock should call an emergency caucus meeting to address the issue.

“Premier Hancock needs to call an emergency meeting of his caucus to determine if former Premier Redford represents the values and vision of his caucus,” said Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark. “If he takes no action, I think we can see exactly which values the PC Party represents today.”

The Wildrose is holding a newser on Tuesday afternoon and says its Finance Critic Rob Anderson will formally request Premier Hancock to call in the RCMP to launch a criminal investigation into the allegations.

(With files from Scott McLean)