Washington, D.C. – When Super Bowl LX gets underway on Sunday, February 8, at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, it will also kick off a deluge of private jets flying in and out of the area. Officials at San Jose Mineta International Airport expect at least 300 private jets flying in for the event. It is one of the busiest private-jet-flying weekends of the year.

The American Economic Liberties Project today released a new report, “Making Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share: How Private Jet Travel Congests America’s Airports.” The paper identifies the political and policy factors exacerbating the problems caused by private jets, and provides a comprehensive set of policy options to ensure that air travel remains both safe and equitable moving forward.

“Our research found even America’s most congested commercial airports, which are effectively closed to low-fare airlines, allot space for the richest flyers to operate on behalf of a handful of privileged travelers,” said William J. McGee, Senior Fellow for Aviation & Travel. “The worst part? They pay much less in fees than the average airline passenger.”

“While airline passengers are charged exorbitant fees and experience delays without any recourse, the uber-wealthy, C-suite executives, celebrities, and others who own, operate, or fly private benefit from unequal rules and regulations,” said Ashley Nowicki, Policy Analyst at the American Economic Liberties Project. “But none of this is inevitable. Congressional Republicans and President Trump granted the private jet industry unprecedented tax breaks in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, incentivizing private jet purchases and travel,”

The paper examines the record surge in private jet travel during 2025, detailing where these flights operate and why they’ve increased. It traces how decades of airline deregulation and consolidation have created airport congestion, yet the Federal Aviation Administration grants private jets exemptions to operate at heavily regulated commercial airports, even during periods when other flights face restrictions, including much of the recent government shutdown.

The analysis reveals how private jet operators benefit from looser safety standards, preferential access to congested airports, and taxpayer-funded aviation infrastructure while contributing a fraction of system costs. It documents the lobbying campaigns by private aviation organizations and quantifies both the direct financial burden on taxpayers through air traffic control operations and the indirect costs of airport congestion for commercial passengers.

The paper concludes with policy recommendations for Congress, the Department of Transportation, and the Federal Aviation Administration to create more equitable aviation policy, including reformed airport leases, fair fee structures that reflect actual system usage, and restrictions on private jet access at the most congested airports.

Read the full paper, “Making Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share: How Private Jet Travel Congests America’s Airports” here.

Learn more about Economic Liberties here.

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The American Economic Liberties Project works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; international trade arrangements that promote balanced trade and benefit workers, farmers and small businesses; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.