At the beginning of last month, the New York area hosted, for the first time, one of the World’s biggest sporting events – the NFL’s Super Bowl. It was estimated that around 15% of the expected 80,000 spectators would travel to the mega-event by private jet, causing a lot of anticipation amongst the area’s bizav community. The FAA predicted that around 1,200 aircraft would be heading to the airfields surrounding Metlife Stadium, 33% more traffic than the average winter weekend.
Teterboro Airport, located just 3 miles from the host stadium, was well positioned for Super Bowl Sunday and was expecting to reach their max capacity with 600 aircraft in addition to a lot of ‘drop and go’ traffic. Other nearby airfields, including Morristown, Essex County and White Plains were looking at increased levels of private aviation traffic in the days either side of the event and would be under the most pressure. During the 2012 Super Bowl in Indianapolis, overflow airfields saw an increase of 347% in terms of traffic, whilst major airports experienced only 84% additional aircraft. Morristown (29 miles from Metlife Stadium) was expecting around 200 reservations, whilst Essex County airfield had already secured 25 reservations by the beginning of December 2013. It is safe to say that there were high hopes for big gains for all at this year’s event.
The industry’s grand expectations, combined with the fact that New York has one of the most complicated airspaces in the country, necessitated a great deal of preparation to ensure minimal disruption. The FAA issued a number of constraints that were to affect the airfields surrounding the stadium, to minimise congestion and avoid security threats. The most stringent of their limitations was the introduction of a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) spanning an 8 mile radius of Metlife Stadium from 2pm until midnight on game day. Given that the main appeals of private jet travel tend to be the flexibility and freedom it affords its users, having Teterboro shut down for 10 hours would not be well-received by operators nor passengers alike. Another restriction implemented by the FAA was allocating each airfield with landing and take-off slot quotas. Following the 2013 Super Bowl in New Orleans, at least 80% of the 800 private aircraft in the area for the game left within a few hours of the Baltimore Ravens’ victory, something the authorities were keen to avoid this year. Once flight restrictions were lifted at midnight on Sunday, departures were limited to 10 aircraft movements per FBO per hour. Whilst these measures may have minimised airway congestion, they also delayed the departure of most passengers until Monday morning. Most airfields also introduced mandatory reservations, deposits or additional fees to help deal with the additional traffic brought to the area for the Super Bowl.
Despite the predicted figures, which ironically led to these rigorous restrictions, this year’s Super Bowl failed to deliver; with only one third of the expected business arriving come game day. FBOs based at Teterboro Airport reported only 30-50% of reservations materialised over the weekend and Million Air, an operator based at White Plains, received less than one fifth of expected traffic. Whilst it is worth noting that during NOLA’s 2013 Super Bowl roughly 30% of bizav traffic originated from the New York/New Jersey area, a number of factors can be blamed for the ‘low’ number of private jet passengers at this year’s game. The FAA’s stringent restrictions, inclement weather threatening to postpone the game and tightened security, could all have easily deterred private jet passengers individually, let alone in conjunction with one another. It is no wonder that private jet use was lower than anticipated.
Despite private jet utilisation being low at this year’s Super Bowl, evidence can be seen elsewhere that when there is an influx in demand for travel to one specific city, location or event, there will often be the correlated surge in private jet charter requests. Like New York, London has an extremely congested airspace and busy airports; this lead to concerns as to whether London could cope with the added air traffic brought on by the 2012 Summer Olympics. Despite a slightly underwhelming turn-out (around a quarter less than anticipated), the CAA states that approximately 10,000 IFR General Aviation aircraft movements were recorded during the Games. These figures represent a 43% increase on the levels typically expected at that time of year. Whilst none of London’s surrounding airfields were fully-booked, they were all unquestionably busy, with most of them seeing significant peaks in business. Oxford airport saw a 180% increase in activity in addition to a 40% boost on fuel sales; Biggin Hill airport experienced 12.5% additional business; and the London Heliport in Battersea saw 63% more traffic than normal. Even London’s larger airports saw noticeable differences in private traffic with Stansted breaking their own record by having 165 private aircraft parked overnight and Luton Airport seeing around 2,400 executive jet movements throughout the Games.
The World Cup is another sporting event that sees notable private jet utilisation. During 2010’s tournament hosted by South Africa, 8% of visitors travelled by private jet and it’s predicted by United Aviation Services (UAS) that this year’s event in Brazil will see that figure increase to 11%, which represents around 66,000 passengers. This figure will be further abetted by the fact that matches are spread across the vast country and Brazilian commercial infrastructure is arguably underdeveloped and already under immense pressure; so many will turn to private aviation in order to avoid the extra hassle.
The relationship between events and private jet charter is not reserved exclusively for sporting events though; business, political and cultural events are also great examples. At the end of January, Davos, Switzerland hosts the World Economic Forum and WEF14 saw 1,595 flights in the days either side of the conference. In the nine day period from 20th to 29th January, Zurich Airport handled just over 1,000 aircraft movements. Similarly, the Cannes Film Festival is another great showcase of the correlation between private aviation and global events. Every May, the area’s two airfields – Nice Cote d’Azur and Cannes Mandelieu – both see a significant increase in private jet traffic when the festival is in town. On an average day, both airfields see about 53 aircraft movements, however during the film festival in recent years they have seen as much as 100%-105% increases on this figure.
Whilst it is clear that mega-events do have some significant impact on the demand for private jets, it seems that industry predictions have a tendency to be a little over enthusiastic; unsurprisingly it is hard to accurately predict demand when an event changes location from year to year. It’s also worth noting that at these times one will also tend to see a peak in commercial aviation traffic. With regards to private aviation specifically, it is with capacity that most issues are felt, particularly for one day events like the Super Bowl. Having such large numbers of people wishing to travel to one area during a very small window of time is going incur restrictions to the flow of traffic, inhibiting the flexibility and freedom typically expected of private jet travel and in turn, lessening its appeal. Of course there will always be extenuating factors that are difficult or impossible to control, like weather or passenger demands, that can affect the appeal of private aviation. As discussed in a previous blog post, in order to ensure a strong industry we must minimise unnecessary red tape that could stifle growth; this scenario is a perfect example of this. Clearly agencies and regulatory bodies have a duty to ensure the safety of passengers and industry personnel, but there must be a common ground where this can co-exist with the efficient and beneficial operation of private jets during these mega-events that have so much potential to boost local and regional economies.
Christina Hayes
Marketing Assistant