25. Private Jets

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Economics of Everyday Things

Episode 25: Private Jets
Host: Zachary Crockett
Date: March 26, 2026
Network: Freakonomics Network

Episode Overview

In this episode, Zachary Crockett explores the insular world of private jets—who flies them, how they’re operated, and the economic, environmental, and ethical implications behind the ultra-wealthy’s favorite way to travel. Through interviews with an industry insider and a critic from the world of economic policy, Crockett peels back the layers on what private aviation really costs, who pays for it, and at what price to society.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Private Jet Experience vs. Commercial Flying

[01:31–03:19]

• For most people, flying commercially is a hassle—long waits, crowded flights, strict security.
• For private jet travelers, air travel is transformed into a seamless, luxurious process:
  • Anthony Tivnan (02:06): “You pull the car right up to the plane... there’s a red carpet waiting as you enter the doorway to the plane and you’re on your way.”
  • Amenities include luxury seating, private cabins, fine dining, and full in-flight beds.

2. Who Flies Private and How

[03:47–06:47]

• The vast majority of private jets are used by executives, celebrities, and corporations for business and leisure.
  • Over 23,000 private planes globally; more than twice as many as 20 years ago ([03:19]).
• Three main ways to access private aviation:
  • Ownership: Light jets start at $7–$10m; top-tier jets cost upwards of $60–$75m ([04:39]).
  • Fractional ownership: Similar to a timeshare, spreading the cost among ~32 people ([05:53]).
  • Charter flights: Pay hourly, with rates from $6,000 to $20,000 per hour depending on jet size.
  • Membership cards: Prepay for bulk hours to lock in access and rates (entry at ~$100,000) ([07:26]).

3. Why Companies Pay for Private Flights

[08:01–10:10]

• Time savings and flexibility: Private jets access 5,000 US airports (vs. 500 for commercial), minimize waiting, and facilitate back-to-back business travel ([08:33]).
  • Anthony Tivnan (08:24): “If you have a 3 o’clock flight, arriving at 2:55 is no problem.”
• Example: Doug McMillan (Walmart CEO) – company jets save expensive executive time.
• Private jets are also used to impress clients:
  • “Entertaining customers, picking them up, golf events, sports games...” ([10:01]).

4. The Critique: Subsidies, Inequity, and Environmental Impact

[12:29–18:15]

• Chuck Collins: Wealth critic, policy director at the Institute for Policy Studies, and heir to Oscar Mayer fortune.
  • On inequality (13:05):
    “This imbalance of concentration of wealth and power is at the root cause of a lot of things broken right now."
• Claims of Subsidy:
  • Private aviation is 16% of air traffic but pays only 2% of sector costs ([14:15]).
  • Owners of private jets pay far lower taxes relative to usage (fuel tax of 22 cents per gallon vs. 7.5% ticket tax for commercial flyers).
  • Tax code allows immediate, large deductions for buying jets, often blurring business and personal use.
    • “We found guys going to Argentina to go on a pheasant hunting preserve...” ([15:27]).
• Lobbying Efforts & Secrecy:
  • The private jet industry spends millions on lobbying, including pushing for privacy (e.g., opting out of public flight tracking) ([16:01]).
  • Lack of security screening poses a modest but real risk ([16:36]).

5. Environmental Concerns

[17:06–18:15]

• Private jets produce much more CO₂ per passenger than commercial flights—10 to 20 times as much ([17:06]).
• Notable case: Elon Musk’s private jet burned 222,000 gallons of fuel in a year (200x average American’s footprint).
• Collins: Many private flights are extremely short—often under 1 hour, sometimes under 30 minutes.
  • “[We] found 41% of the flights were less than an hour and 14% were less than 30 minutes.” ([18:00])
• Industry Response:
  • Tivnan (18:22): Aviation is only about 3% of carbon footprint, and private aviation is less than 3% of that.
  • Many companies offer carbon offsets and promote future emissions cuts (NBAA goal: halve CO₂ by 2050).

6. Policy Solutions and Future Debates

[18:39–20:25]

• Legislative proposals: US bill to raise fuel taxes on private jets (from 22¢ to $1.95/gal); France has floated an outright ban.
  • Tivnan (19:33): "What you're doing is just creating a higher cost for the companies that really run the country..."
  • Collins (19:42): “For most of the 20th century, we didn’t have the kind of private jet set that we have today. Somehow we had healthy commerce and businesses.”
• Examples of change: Collins convinced a friend to sell his private jet and take the train instead, even if it’s less convenient ([20:10]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Red Carpet Travel (02:06, Anthony Tivnan):
  “You pull the car right up to the plane... there's a red carpet waiting as you enter the doorway to the plane and you're on your way.”

• The True Cost of Ownership (04:39, Anthony Tivnan):
  “A light jet like a Phenom 300... $7 to $10 million. Gulfstream 650... upwards in the $60 to $75 million range.”

• On Subsidies (14:15, Chuck Collins):
  “Private aviation is about 16% of all the use of the airspace, but that sector only chips in about 2% of the costs... So effectively, we subsidize private jet aviation.”

• On “Business” Trips (15:27, Chuck Collins):
  “We found guys going to Argentina to go on a pheasant hunting preserve or something.”

• Environmental Math (17:06, Chuck Collins):
  “Private jets burn 10 to 20 times more carbon emissions than a commercial jet per passenger.”

• Short-Haul Excess (18:00, Chuck Collins):
  “We found 41% of the flights were less than an hour and 14% were less than 30 minutes.”

• Industry Perspective (18:22, Anthony Tivnan):
  "Aviation represents about 3% of the carbon footprint. Private aviation represents less than 3% of that 3%."

• On Policy Changes (20:10, Chuck Collins):
  “And if it means you're going to be inconvenienced, you're going to have to take the train to New York and it's going to take three and a half hours... so sorry.”

• The $30 Tuna Sandwich Moment (20:45):
  Zachary Crockett: “How much does it cost?”
  Anthony Tivnan: “You know, $30? Tuna sandwich sometimes.”

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:31] — Introduction: Commercial vs. private air travel
• [02:06] — Inside the luxury private jet experience (Tivnan)
• [03:03] — The economics of private jet ownership and who pays
• [04:39] — Cost breakdown: buying and operating a jet
• [05:53] — Fractional ownership and chartering explained
• [07:26] — Jet membership cards and the Airbnb/Uber comparison
• [08:33] — Access to airports and maximization of executive time
• [12:29] — Wealth, policy, and fairness (Chuck Collins introduction)
• [14:15] — How the tax system subsidizes private aviation
• [16:01] — Lobbying for privacy and security loopholes
• [17:06 / 18:00] — Environmental impact and “short-hop” flight data
• [18:22] — Industry response to climate criticism
• [19:33] — Current legislative proposals
• [20:10] — Personal anecdotes: trading jets for trains
• [20:45] — The $30 tuna sandwich anecdote

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Tone & Language

• Host (Zachary Crockett): Inquisitive, lightly humorous, analytical; provides clear context and neutral framing.
• Anthony Tivnan: Warm, knowledgeable, pragmatic; highlights luxury but is candid about costs.
• Chuck Collins: Reflective, critical, and direct, with a focus on equity and justice.

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This episode delivers a brisk but comprehensive crash course in the economics—and ethics—of private jets, balancing both glamour and consequence. Between jaw-dropping luxury, sharp policy critique, and $30 sandwiches, listeners get a behind-the-curtain look at how the .001% take to the skies.

Transcript

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[Zachary Crockett]

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[Zachary Crockett]

For most of us, the airport is not an enjoyable place. We have to get there hours before our flight takes off. We stand in long lines to check our bags. We're herded through body scanners, shoeless and confused, and on the plane we're serenaded by crying babies and crushed by the guy in front of us who insists on reclining his chair. But for the privileged few, there's a parallel universe where none of these problems exist, where traveling by air is a breeze.

[Anthony Tivnan]

You pull the car right up to the plane. There's somebody waiting outside for you. They know exactly where you're going. They're greeting you, grabbing your bags. There's a red carpet waiting as you enter the doorway to the plane and you're on your way.

[Zachary Crockett]

That's Anthony Tivnan. He runs a private jet company in Boston.

[Anthony Tivnan]

You're sitting in a 30, $40 million airplane with just your family, watching whatever you want to watch, listening to whatever you want to listen to. It's Ritz Carlton. It's Four Seasons. There's a beautiful setup if you want to grab a drink. Champagne, Scotch. You can have an outstanding dinner, three, four, five course meals, and then you can head to the rear of the cabin and have a full size bed made up and sleep for the rest of the flight.

[Zachary Crockett]

Executives and celebrities shell out millions of dollars for regular access to this convenience, but Critics say we are paying for it too.

[Chuck Collins]

They don't pay the real costs of their aerospace use. They don't pay the real costs of their ecological emissions. You're really Talking about the 0.001%, the ultra wealthy that are the beneficiaries of the system that the rest of us subsidize.

[Zachary Crockett]

For the Freakonomics radio network, this is the economics of everyday things. I'm Zachary Crockett. Today, private jets. Globally, there are now more than 23,000 private planes, more than twice as many as two decades ago. Last year, those jets embarked on 5.3 million flights. Now, private aviation is a fairly broad category. It includes mail planes in Alaska and

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crop dusters in Kansas.

[Zachary Crockett]

But the majority of these jets are used for business and pleasure by the ultra wealthy. And when they need to book a flight, they call someone like Anthony Tivnan.

[Anthony Tivnan]

We want to make them feel as though they weren't even on a flight and they're as comfortable as humanly possible.

[Zachary Crockett]

Tivnan is the president and co founder of Magellan jets, one of the nation's leading providers of private flights. He's been in the business for more than 20 years.

[Anthony Tivnan]

We service, I would say roughly 1200 clients and annually we probably visit about 80 plus countries for our international flights. So, you know, we're certainly all over the place.

[Zachary Crockett]

If you want to fly private, you have a few options. If you're a really big baller, you can buy your own jet, but that requires some serious dough.

[Anthony Tivnan]

You know, let's just say a light jet like a Phenom 300. You're usually in the ballpark around 7 to $10 million. If you're looking at like a Gulfstream 650 or some of the new products like a Global 8500 or you know, the Falcon 9X, you're upwards in the 60 to $75 million range there.

[Zachary Crockett]

Donald Trump flies on a $100 million Boeing 757. Kim Kardashian, her Gulfstream G650ER clocks in at 150 million. And these figures don't include the ongoing expenses of owning a jet. It runs around 8,000 bucks to fill the tank of a mid sized plane. Parking your jet in a major airport hangar, you're looking at $12,000 a month. Most private jets also require two pilots whose salaries come out of your pocket. If you include things like maintenance, insurance and depreciation, the cost of upkeep can easily exceed a million dollars a year. If this is all a bit too rich for you, you can buy fractional ownership in a jet from a company like NetJets or Flexjet. It's kind of like a timeshare for fancy airplanes.

[Anthony Tivnan]

You can have as many as 32 folks that are all assigned to a certain jet and you're paying for your portion up front and then you're paying for your occupied flight time in your fuel. So it's kind of like a shared asset type of model.

[Zachary Crockett]

Or if you just want to fly private, sometimes without the ongoing costs, you can book charter flights and pay by the hour.

[Anthony Tivnan]

A light jet is typically going to cost six to $8,000 an hour. A midsize jet, eight to $10,000 an hour range. A super midsize aircraft is going to put you, I would say, in the 12 to $15,000 range per hour. And then your heavy jets, Gulfstream 450s, 550s global expresses, I would factor in about 14,000 to $20,000 depending upon the airplane.

[Zachary Crockett]

Charter flights are among Magellan's offerings, but the company doesn't actually own any jets. Instead, it works with people and corporations that do. A lot of private flights are one way only, which means the jet ends up flying back empty. Magellan sells those empty legs to willing customers. It also monetizes any downtime time when a jet is just sitting around in a hangar.

[Anthony Tivnan]

So you know, Corporation X has 15 airplanes in their corporate flight department and we make that cost of their ownership lower by producing charter revenue on the aircraft when it's not moving.

[Zachary Crockett]

If you're chartering private jets on a regular basis, you can buy a jet membership card. You purchase a certain amount of hours at a set rate on a specific airplane and you can use them whenever you want.

[Anthony Tivnan]

It's comparable to like an Airbnb or Uber, right? When you're done with it, you walk away and you have no other responsibilities to that asset. Generally speaking, $100,000 is kind of that entry level program in order to have access to like a guaranteed aircraft. And that's certainly on the smaller end.

[Zachary Crockett]

Obviously all of these options are a lot more expensive than flying commercial. But the passenger isn't always the one paying executives. Flights are often covered by the companies they work for. Those companies would tell you that they're trying to maximize the value of highest paid employees time. If you fly private, you don't need to get to the airport two hours early.

[Anthony Tivnan]

If you have a 3 o' clock flight arriving at 2:55 is no problem.

[Zachary Crockett]

Private planes also have access to a lot more airports.

[Anthony Tivnan]

So we're getting folks as close as humanly possible to wherever it is they're going. We have access to 5,000 airports in the US alone. When you're flying commercially, that number goes down to 500 airports.

[Zachary Crockett]

When it comes to executive travel, every minute counts. Take for instance, Doug McMillan, the CEO of Walmart. He earns $24 million a year, which means his time costs the company around $7,000 an hour. When he flies, it's on one of the company's 20 jets. These planes allow McMillan and other Walmart executives to visit stores and hubs all over the country and get back to the company's headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas the same day. Corporations are often willing to pay significantly more money for a flight just to save a single hour of time.

[Anthony Tivnan]

I remember one situation. There was one aircraft that could be there in two hours and there was another aircraft that could be there in one hour and the one that was one hour was like $15,000 more. And they said, oh, okay, let's take that one because it's cheaper based on the salaries of how many people are on board.

[Zachary Crockett]

In the business world, the benefits of private jets go beyond time savings. They're often used as a flex to whine and dine potential clients, whether it's

[Anthony Tivnan]

entertaining customers, picking them up, golf events, sports games, really important account. You know, let's go ahead and book the Gulf stream.

[Zachary Crockett]

Private jets might make sense for companies and they're certainly popular with the individuals who fly in them. But some people say they shouldn't exist at all. That's coming up.

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[Zachary Crockett]

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the fine print, who likes to make your own calls, who's built a life, not to mention a career by thinking independently. So why shouldn't you invest that way too? Crowdstreet is built for self directed investors who want direct access to private market opportunities like private equity, private credit and real estate. Vetted offerings, transparent data and clear diligence summaries help you make confident, informed choices. Because independence doesn't stop at your desk or your business or your weekend projects, it should extend to your investments too.

[Zachary Crockett]

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[Zachary Crockett]

Growing up, Chuck Collins was surrounded by people who flew private jets.

[Chuck Collins]

I'm the great grandson of the meatpacker Oscar Mayer, so I like to say I was born on third base, although I didn't inherit the cool car.

[Zachary Crockett]

He did, however, inherit a trust fund, but at 26, he gave it all away to charity. Today he's a program director at the Institute for Policy Studies, or ips, where he focuses on the harm caused by income disparities. He's also a member of the Patriotic Millionaires, a group of rich folks who support higher taxes on people like themselves.

[Chuck Collins]

You know, the last 40 years we've been pulling apart as a society. This imbalance of concentration of wealth and power as at the root cause of a lot of things broken right now.

[Zachary Crockett]

Lately, he's been particularly fixated on private jets.

[Chuck Collins]

To me, it's sort of the most indefensible form of luxury consumption because it has so many harms that it causes everyone else.

[Zachary Crockett]

Collins concerns begin with the way that private jet travel is taxed. Say you buy a one way ticket from Boston to New York on a commercial flight. Your ticket might cost around 60 bucks, but you'll also pay around $20 in taxes and fees, a 7.5% federal tax, a passenger facility charge, a flight segment tax and a security fee. If there are 150 people on your flight, that's $3,000 collectively. Some of this money is used to fund the Federal Aviation Administration, which pays for things like air traffic control and the upkeep of airports. But Collins says private flyers don't pay their fair share into the system.

[Chuck Collins]

Private aviation is about 16% of all the use of the airspace, but that sector only chips in about 2% of the costs of operating the sector. There's all these small airports that don't have commercial Travel. You and I can't fly to them unless we have our own plane. And that's supported by this system of revenue that mostly commercial travelers and taxpayers pay for. So effectively, we subsidize private jet aviation.

[Zachary Crockett]

People who charter jets generally have to pay the same taxes as we do on their flights. But those who own their own jets, the billionaire types, many of them only have to pay a fuel tax of 22 cents per gallon. And the tax benefits of jet ownership don't stop there. The Tax Cuts and jobs act of 2017 allows private jet owners to deduct the entire cost of a new jet on their tax return in the first year of purchase. It just has to be used for business purposes. Oftentimes, the line between business and pleasure is blurry.

[Chuck Collins]

You and I could fly to Aruba, play a round of golf, and have a business conversation, and that would be a business flight. In our recent report, we found guys going to Argentina to go on a pheasant hunting preserve or something.

[Zachary Crockett]

Allowances like this have been heavily promoted by private jet lobbyists. Since 2010, the three largest private jet associations have spent $68 million to influence the decisions of lawmakers. Their latest focus has been privacy.

[Chuck Collins]

They are behind this effort to bring a greater shroud of secrecy over private jet travelers. You know, if you own a private jet, you can ask the FAA to have your name removed from a public tracking registry.

[Zachary Crockett]

Savvy Internet users have found ways to work around tactics like this. But in recent years, an increasing number of corporations and executives have moved toward fractional jet ownership, which gives passengers even more invisibility. Some people in the industry see this lack of transparency as a threat to national security.

[Chuck Collins]

You take out your golf clubs or your hunting rifle or whatever, you just get on the jet. Nobody's frisking you. Nobody's taking your water bottle. People in aviation in Europe don't think that the next 911 terror attack is going to come with a commercial jetliner. It's going to be somebody with a private jet.

[Zachary Crockett]

But Collins says the biggest issue with private jets, the thing that really keeps him awake at night, is their disproportionate impact on the environment.

[Chuck Collins]

Private jets burn 10 to 20 times more carbon emissions than a commercial jet per passenger.

[Zachary Crockett]

Take, for instance, Elon Musk, one of the nation's heaviest private jet users. Last year, he took 171 flights that burned 222,000 gallons of jet fuel. The carbon emission from his flights alone was 200 times more than the average American's annual footprint. What makes this especially exasperating is that many of these private flights aren't necessary to begin with. Kylie Jenner made headlines last year for taking a 17 minute flight across Los Angeles on her $72 million Bombardier jet. That same trip would have taken around 40 minutes in a car. Collins analyzed flight traffic from an airport outside of Boston and found that that kind of short hop is not uncommon.

[Chuck Collins]

We found 41% of the flights were less than an hour and 14% were less than 30 minutes. These are wealthy folks who are choosing to fly private jets, but they actually have other options.

[Zachary Crockett]

Anthony Tivnan of Magellan jets thinks the focus on private clients has been blown out of proportion.

[Anthony Tivnan]

Pointing fingers and going back and forth isn't gonna solve the issue. When you look at it as a whole, aviation represents about 3% of the carbon footprint. Now. Private aviation represents less than 3% of that 3%.

[Zachary Crockett]

Many private jet outfits, including Magellan, offer carbon credits to clients to offset the impact of their flights. And the National Business Aviation association, which is one of the big jet lobbyists, says that it's aiming to cut CO2 emissions in half by 2050. Legislators have proposed more immediate solutions. A bill was recently introduced in Congress that seeks to increase fuel taxes for private jets from 22 cents to $1.95 per gallon. This extra revenue would go toward long term investments in clean and affordable transportation. Other places around the world have taken an even stronger stance. Politicians in France have proposed banning private jet flights altogether. Unsurprisingly, Tiffany is not on board with these ideas.

[Anthony Tivnan]

What you're doing is just creating a higher cost for the companies that really run the country, which is just going to eventually drive up consumer cost.

[Chuck Collins]

I mean, for most of the 20th century, we didn't have the kind of private jet set that we have today. Somehow we had healthy commerce and businesses.

[Zachary Crockett]

A few months ago, Chuck Collins convinced one of his wealthy friends, a man who loves the trappings of luxury, to sell his beloved jet. That, he says is the kind of action he'd like to see more of.

[Chuck Collins]

And if it means you're going to be inconvenienced, you're going to have to take the train to New York and it's going to take three and a half hours. And instead of your jet, which is gonna take 40 minutes. So sorry

[Zachary Crockett]

for the economics of everyday things. I'm Zachary Crockett. This episode was produced by Sarah Lilly and mixed by Jeremy Johnston. We had help from Julie Kantfer and Daniel Moritz. RA.

[Anthony Tivnan]

You should see what the tuna sandwich costs.

[Zachary Crockett]

How much does it cost?

[Anthony Tivnan]

You know, $30? Tuna sandwich sometimes.

[Zachary Crockett]

The Freakonomics Radio Network the hidden side of everything.

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