DETROIT (The WSJ) -- General Motors Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Edward E. Whitacre Jr., looking to avoid the private jet firestorm that engulfed Detroit's auto makers in 2008, will personally foot the bill for a chartered flight to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, according to a person familiar with the plan.

It is one of many steps Mr. Whitacre is taking to shake the baggage of GM's $50 billion federal bailout. On Wednesday, he will announce at a factory in Kansas City, Kan., that GM has repaid a $6.7 billion U.S.
Treasury loan and $1.4 billion in Canadian loans. From there, Mr. Whitacre will go to Washington, his first trip there as CEO—to provide congressional leaders with an update on GM's restructuring.
The tight schedule would have been nearly impossible to manage using commercial air travel. But the company doesn't want a repeat of the controversy that ensued when Detroit's auto CEOs arrived on Capitol Hill via separate private jets to plead for a multibillion-dollar bailout.
The move was widely assailed as a sign Detroit auto companies had lost touch with the American public.