Song feeling Taylor Swift clearly had a second private jet on reserve because she considered it vital to fly from Tokyo, Japan back to the United States in order to see her boyfriend Travis Kelce play in the Super Bowl.
The global flight tracking service FlightRadar24 announced on Saturday that Swift, who was in Tokyo performing a number of gigs, has a second private jet. The website of the flight tracking service gave the jet the fitting name “Backup Quarterback.” In case something went wrong, private jet operator VistaJet had mechanics on standby at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, according to Jason Rabinowitz, co-host of FlightRadar24’s AvTalk podcast.
“The logistics of flying #TaylorSwift across the planet to a football game is quite a production,” Rabinowitz said in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “I’m told @vistajet didn’t just have mechanics at HND [the Haneda Airport code] in case anything broke, it had a whole second jet there on standby. Basically, a private Air Force One.”
Although he declined to provide any details, Rabinowitz told Gizmodo that individuals in the private jet sector who have access to the information informed him about the second aircraft, a Bombardier Global 6000 with the call sign VTJ968. When Gizmodo asked VistaJet and Swift’s staff for comments on the rumoured second jet, they did not respond.
Luckily, there was nothing wrong with the first jet, also a Bombardier Global 6000 with call sign VJT993, which FlightRadar24 named “The Football Era.” But how can we be sure this was Swift’s flight? Ian Petchenik, FlightRadar24’s communications director, told Gizmodo in an email that while they couldn’t confirm whether she boarded the plane, the team had a “high degree of confidence” that this was her flight based on the information they had received.
With plenty of time to get to Las Vegas for Sunday’s Super Bowl, VJT993 left Tokyo at 11:36 p.m. local time and is scheduled to arrive in Los Angeles at 3:27 p.m. local time on Saturday. Swift’s nine-hour journey from Tokyo to Los Angeles was seen by an average of 6,000 individuals at all times on Saturday, according to Petchenik. Gizmodo verified during the last hour of the flight that over 10,400 individuals were following the flight in real time.
As for the “Backup Quarterback,” also known as VTJ968, it appeared to take off in the opposite direction after Swift’s flight took off.
Swift’s carbon footprint would skyrocket if there was indeed a second jet for her stationed in Tokyo. It’s one thing to take your lover or buddies out on your private jet, but it’s quite another to have a backup aircraft ready in case the primary one malfunctions and returns empty.
Based on data from FlightRadar24 regarding Swift’s itinerary and additional variables including the Bombardier Global 6000’s fuel consumption, Klöwer calculates that the pop sensation produced roughly 100 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent during her last-minute flight back to the United States for the Super Bowl. He calculated that the journey alone most likely consumed 4,230 gallons, or 19,230 litres, of petrol, or around $25,000.
In order to put this into perspective, Klöwer noted that the typical person in Ghana emits 0.8 metric tonnes of CO2 annually, which implies that Taylor Swift “in nine hours [the length of her flight] Taylor Swift emitted as much as 125 people in Ghana in a year.”According to the climate scientist, Swift would have only released only 2% of her total emissions during her journey if she had taken the commercial or economy class, as the majority of travellers do.
Klöwer stressed that there is only one flight. Throughout her Eras Tour, Swift has already accrued a significant number of flight hours, and she’s not done yet. The pop sensation will be touring throughout the year and will be performing live in Australia on February 16.
Klöwer stated his hope that Swift’s trip’s publicity would draw attention to the significance of travel choices. For example, flying first class produces twice as many pollution as economy, and flying private produces 50 times more emissions.
“Business, first, and then also private are mostly just seen as a business opportunity for the aviation industry, but these luxurious levels of traveling have an enormous climate impact,” Klöwer said.