They're So Vain: The One-Percenters and Private Jets
BY WILLIAM J. MCGEE --
More than 80,000 fans will flock to the Meadowlands in New Jersey next Sunday for the FIFA World Cup championship. Far too many of them also will clog the Metro New York skies by arriving via private jets.
Think that I'm kidding? More than 250 private jets landed at Los Angeles-area airports last month in advance of the first match of the U.S. Men's team. One industry analysis suggests that private jet traffic surges by nearly 1,300% in U.S. cities hosting World Cup games. Then there's the tale of FIFA president Gianni Infantino. The BBC reports he's been jetting around North America in his private jet, attending dozens of matches and racking up the annual carbon footprint of 78 normal human beings.
None of this should surprise you. The private jet brigade crowded the Bay Area for Super Bowl LX in February, just as they crowd airports for other A-list events: Davos, Cannes, the Olympics. They're the uber-rich who, as Carly Simon sang many years ago, embody the word vain as they flock to the world's most exclusive stages. They even shamelessly fly their jets to the United Nations climate negotiations.
They party with rock stars and supermodels in the clouds while the rest of us fly amidst Knee Defenders, Biscoff cookies and Contracts of Carriage that tell us what rights we don't have.
But the thing about all those private jets carrying around billionaires, corporate titans and politicians? They have their own airport playgrounds yet many still insist on using ours. Which means flying into America's most congested airports, exacerbating delays and cancellations. All while using take-off and landing slots that would be better served by low-fare airlines offering real competition to the Big Four oligopoly.
My organization, American Economic Liberties Project, published a paper I co-wrote with Ashley Nowicki entitled Making Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share: How Private Jet Travel Congests America's Airports. We detail how private jet usage skyrocketed--pun intended--among the rich after COVID-19 while corporate jet travel for C-suite execs doubled since 2020.
I've got nothing against small planes and private pilots. I spent a decade in the US Air Force Auxiliary, AKA Civil Air Patrol. I regularly flew on Cessna four-seaters out of countless small civil airports and military bases. And back when Pan Am Shuttle sent me to dispatch school for meteorology training, I took the written pilot exams, too.
So I get it. Flying small planes is fun. Just ask any dentist or podiatrist at your local civil airport any Wednesday morning. But they're not the problem. The vast number of private pilots fly in and out of general-aviation airfields and don't impact the rest of us.
The problems come from the richest of the rich in their Gulfstream G6s. You know, the billionaires who wouldn't think of gaming society for their own personal benefit. The one-percenters.
It comes down to sharing facilities. There are 506 commercial airports in the United States, but there are ten general aviation fields for every one of them, a total of 5,082. That 10:1 ratio doesn't even include another 14,551 private airports that wealthy flyers can access, too. So why are they using LAX, SFO, New York/LaGuardia, Washington/National and so many other overcrowded commercial airports? Because they don't want longer limo rides into town. They are, as Carly Simon said, so vain.
Anyone not cryogenically frozen recently knows many major American airports are overcrowded. Some simply can't handle all scheduled flights on the best days. The FAA first addressed this in 1968 by introducing controls on take-off and landing slots at seven of the busiest airports. Currently LGA, New York/Kennedy and DCA are permanently controlled. Newark is temporarily controlled. SFO, Chicago/O'Hare and LAX are "monitored."
This means America's most congested airports are dominated by grandfathered legacy carriers and don't have room for creative start-up airlines or "ultra low cost carriers." I know. Who cares? You won't fly ULCCs with their blood-clotting seat pitch and sketchy reliability records. Well, you should care. Because you don't have to fly Allegiant or Frontier to benefit from their presence. An MIT study found fares fall as much as 20% when new airlines enter a market.
Yet LGA allots three slots hourly for non-commercial airline operations. At National, it's 12 slots an hour. At massively overcrowded Kennedy Airport, a staggering 20% of slots daily are earmarked for non-airline operations. The other slot-controlled airports allow dozens of private flights per day.
The burden that these carveouts for the one-percenters impose on us is hard to calculate. But former Frontier Airlines chief executive Barry Biffle told Congress last year that private jets "game" the FAA's delay programs with fudged departure times. "Airlines often end up having to cancel because these delays stack up and time out our crews," he explained.
This costs taxpayers in other ways, too. Air traffic control spends as much time, attention and care on private jets carrying two people as those carrying 400 passengers. In fact, sometimes the private jets require even more space and attention at commercial airports thanks to wake turbulence from large passenger aircraft that wreak havoc on the little planes behind them.
Aside from ATC footprints, the richest passengers also have considerably larger carbon footprints. We found that the CO2 output for a private jet passenger is about 45 times that of a commercial flyer. And, of course, there's FIFA president Infantino and his World Cup odyssey.
What's more, private jet passengers don't pay the 7.5% ticket tax or the passenger facility charges we commercial passengers pay. In fact, private jet operators pay just 0.6% of the tax revenue in the FAA's Airport and Airway Trust Fund even while responsible for 7% of flights.
Then why does the FAA allow private jets in already overcrowded airspace? The private jet lobby. If you doubt the power of the lobby, consider last year's One Big Beautiful Bill. It's clear that it was co-written by shills from the personal aircraft industry. Oh, and car wash owners. You read that right: Private jets and car washes received 100% tax write-offs.
America hasn't built a new airport in decades and has trouble filling the ranks of air traffic controllers. But the FAA can at least keep the busiest commercial airports commercial. The one-percenters' private jets should be required to land elsewhere.
After all, when you get a 100% write-off for your personal jet, there are worse scenarios than spending an extra 20 minutes in a limo driving from the slightly less convenient private airfields we've already set aside for you.
ABOUT WILLIAM MCGEE
William J. McGee has spent more than 40 years working in and writing about aviation and advocating for airline passengers. He's an FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher and author of Attention All Passengers and Half the Child. He most recently wrote about airline movies for JoeSentMe.com.
Think that I'm kidding? More than 250 private jets landed at Los Angeles-area airports last month in advance of the first match of the U.S. Men's team. One industry analysis suggests that private jet traffic surges by nearly 1,300% in U.S. cities hosting World Cup games. Then there's the tale of FIFA president Gianni Infantino. The BBC reports he's been jetting around North America in his private jet, attending dozens of matches and racking up the annual carbon footprint of 78 normal human beings.
None of this should surprise you. The private jet brigade crowded the Bay Area for Super Bowl LX in February, just as they crowd airports for other A-list events: Davos, Cannes, the Olympics. They're the uber-rich who, as Carly Simon sang many years ago, embody the word vain as they flock to the world's most exclusive stages. They even shamelessly fly their jets to the United Nations climate negotiations.
They party with rock stars and supermodels in the clouds while the rest of us fly amidst Knee Defenders, Biscoff cookies and Contracts of Carriage that tell us what rights we don't have.
But the thing about all those private jets carrying around billionaires, corporate titans and politicians? They have their own airport playgrounds yet many still insist on using ours. Which means flying into America's most congested airports, exacerbating delays and cancellations. All while using take-off and landing slots that would be better served by low-fare airlines offering real competition to the Big Four oligopoly.
My organization, American Economic Liberties Project, published a paper I co-wrote with Ashley Nowicki entitled Making Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share: How Private Jet Travel Congests America's Airports. We detail how private jet usage skyrocketed--pun intended--among the rich after COVID-19 while corporate jet travel for C-suite execs doubled since 2020.
I've got nothing against small planes and private pilots. I spent a decade in the US Air Force Auxiliary, AKA Civil Air Patrol. I regularly flew on Cessna four-seaters out of countless small civil airports and military bases. And back when Pan Am Shuttle sent me to dispatch school for meteorology training, I took the written pilot exams, too.
So I get it. Flying small planes is fun. Just ask any dentist or podiatrist at your local civil airport any Wednesday morning. But they're not the problem. The vast number of private pilots fly in and out of general-aviation airfields and don't impact the rest of us.
The problems come from the richest of the rich in their Gulfstream G6s. You know, the billionaires who wouldn't think of gaming society for their own personal benefit. The one-percenters.
It comes down to sharing facilities. There are 506 commercial airports in the United States, but there are ten general aviation fields for every one of them, a total of 5,082. That 10:1 ratio doesn't even include another 14,551 private airports that wealthy flyers can access, too. So why are they using LAX, SFO, New York/LaGuardia, Washington/National and so many other overcrowded commercial airports? Because they don't want longer limo rides into town. They are, as Carly Simon said, so vain.
Anyone not cryogenically frozen recently knows many major American airports are overcrowded. Some simply can't handle all scheduled flights on the best days. The FAA first addressed this in 1968 by introducing controls on take-off and landing slots at seven of the busiest airports. Currently LGA, New York/Kennedy and DCA are permanently controlled. Newark is temporarily controlled. SFO, Chicago/O'Hare and LAX are "monitored."
This means America's most congested airports are dominated by grandfathered legacy carriers and don't have room for creative start-up airlines or "ultra low cost carriers." I know. Who cares? You won't fly ULCCs with their blood-clotting seat pitch and sketchy reliability records. Well, you should care. Because you don't have to fly Allegiant or Frontier to benefit from their presence. An MIT study found fares fall as much as 20% when new airlines enter a market.
Yet LGA allots three slots hourly for non-commercial airline operations. At National, it's 12 slots an hour. At massively overcrowded Kennedy Airport, a staggering 20% of slots daily are earmarked for non-airline operations. The other slot-controlled airports allow dozens of private flights per day.
The burden that these carveouts for the one-percenters impose on us is hard to calculate. But former Frontier Airlines chief executive Barry Biffle told Congress last year that private jets "game" the FAA's delay programs with fudged departure times. "Airlines often end up having to cancel because these delays stack up and time out our crews," he explained.
This costs taxpayers in other ways, too. Air traffic control spends as much time, attention and care on private jets carrying two people as those carrying 400 passengers. In fact, sometimes the private jets require even more space and attention at commercial airports thanks to wake turbulence from large passenger aircraft that wreak havoc on the little planes behind them.
Aside from ATC footprints, the richest passengers also have considerably larger carbon footprints. We found that the CO2 output for a private jet passenger is about 45 times that of a commercial flyer. And, of course, there's FIFA president Infantino and his World Cup odyssey.
What's more, private jet passengers don't pay the 7.5% ticket tax or the passenger facility charges we commercial passengers pay. In fact, private jet operators pay just 0.6% of the tax revenue in the FAA's Airport and Airway Trust Fund even while responsible for 7% of flights.
Then why does the FAA allow private jets in already overcrowded airspace? The private jet lobby. If you doubt the power of the lobby, consider last year's One Big Beautiful Bill. It's clear that it was co-written by shills from the personal aircraft industry. Oh, and car wash owners. You read that right: Private jets and car washes received 100% tax write-offs.
America hasn't built a new airport in decades and has trouble filling the ranks of air traffic controllers. But the FAA can at least keep the busiest commercial airports commercial. The one-percenters' private jets should be required to land elsewhere.
After all, when you get a 100% write-off for your personal jet, there are worse scenarios than spending an extra 20 minutes in a limo driving from the slightly less convenient private airfields we've already set aside for you.
ABOUT WILLIAM MCGEE
William J. McGee has spent more than 40 years working in and writing about aviation and advocating for airline passengers. He's an FAA-licensed aircraft dispatcher and author of Attention All Passengers and Half the Child. He most recently wrote about airline movies for JoeSentMe.com.