Sports Charters Tracking Thread
A sports team travels with a lot of people. There’s obviously the actual players, but they also bring along coaches, medical staff, communications experts, equipment managers, nutritionists, physical therapists, security staff, trainers, and so much more, not to mention thousands of pounds of equipment. It’s not practical to put 100+ people and that much gear on a regular airline flight. Let’s take an NFL team, for example. According to the Chief of Logistics for the Minnesota Vikings, they travel with about 180 people plus about 10,000 pounds of cargo. It simply isn’t feasible to fly commercially, not to mention the hassle of getting sports superstars through the throngs of fans at airports.
It really depends. In the US, big teams (like NFL, NBA, or MLB franchises) often charter large airliners like 777s, 767s, or A330s from carriers like Delta, United, or American. Delta operates a VIP configured 757 that is oftentimes used on WNBA and NBA charters. Less high profile teams will most likely fly A320s or 737s, from carriers like Allegiant or Sun Country.
There’s also this very handy guide from Delta Air Lines with the different charters for each team they fly:
You can share your findings of sports charter flights (from sites like FlightRadar24 or FlightAware) or information about charters in the future.
