Super Bowl Brings Super Bounty to L.A.'s Private Airports

While Los Angeles celebrated a Super Bowl victory on February 13 by the hometown Rams, local private airports in the area also had reason to cheer as private aviation flights returned to their usual heights after the COVID-stunted totals of last year.

With no stadium capacity limitations, this year's game attracted more than 1,400 business aviation flights to area airports in the days preceding it, according to FlightAware, which has been tracking Super Bowl flight activity for years. That is more than double last year’s tally but still less than the 1,600 flights to Miami for Super Bowl LVI in 2020, before COVID-19 became firmly entrenched in the U.S.

Industry data provider WingX noted that arrivals at area airports peaked at 501 flights on the Friday before the game, with the Monday following the game seeing 548 business departures, a 65 percent increase over typical activity in the area.

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An informal poll of local FBOs by BJT sister publication AIN found that Signature Flight Support had more than 600 aircraft on the ground on game day among its five Southern California locations (KLAX, KVNY, KLGB, KSAN, and KPSP), while Atlantic Aviation estimates it had more than 300 game-related arrivals and pumped more than 150,000 gallons of fuel.

Million Air Burbank reported that it welcomed 170 airplanes in the week prior, with 45 airplanes on the ramp at game time, and pumped 134,000 gallons of jet fuel, including nearly 10,000 gallons of sustainable aviation fuel. Meanwhile, at KVNY Castle & Cooke tallied approximately 70 aircraft during the week. Ross Aviation in Long Beach reported it had 75 jets parked on its ramp on game day, while ACI Jet at Orange County-John Wayne Airport saw an increase of about 40 aircraft per day throughout the prior permission required (PPR) period versus typical traffic counts. Based on FlightAware statistics, Camarillo Airport saw 5.5 percent of the business aviation traffic, while Hawthorne Municipal Airport, the closest gateway to the stadium, tallied a 4.8 percent share.