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Projected Private Jet Activity at The Masters
Estimated flight movements for major private aviation operators during the event.
Primary Sources
Private jet companies fight for high-spending customers at the Masters
Vista House, a private home in Westlake, Georgia, sponsored by Vista Global during the Masters.Credit: VistaJetA version of this article first appeared in CNBC's Inside Wealth newsletter with Robert Frank, a weekly guide to the high-net-worth investor and consumer. Sign up to receive future editions, straight to your inbox.Private jet companies are rolling out the red carpet for their top clients at the Masters Tournament, as competition shifts from the air to the ground with lavish hospitality events and experiences.Thousands of private jets are expected to fly in and out of Augusta, Georgia, and nearby airports for the Masters in the coming days, making it one of the most important events of the year. NetJets, the industry leader, expects more than 775 flights into and out of Augusta, marking a 35% to 40% increase from last year, the company said. Flexjet is projecting about 350 to 400 flights, and Vista projects over 20 flights a day."Demand is off the charts," said Mike Silvestro, CEO of Flexjet. "The Masters is like nothing else."On the private jet calendar, Davos, the Super Bowl, Cannes, the Kentucky Derby, the Monaco Grand Prix and Art Basel all attract plenty of private jets and wealthy attendees. But the Masters has a unique combination of tens of thousands of well-heeled attendees and a full week of events, creating a constant flow of clients flying in and out.The swarm of Gulfstreams, Phenoms and Challengers is straining Augusta Regional Airport. Kenneth Hinkle, director of aviation services at the airport, said it had 3,294 flights last year and he expects an increase this year. The airport raised its "special event fee" this year by 25%, to between $150 and $4,000 per plane, depending on size, and expanded its jet parking area to accommodate 200 jets at a time.The competition among private jet companies for landing slots, parking spaces and access to and from the terminal has grown so fierce that many companies have moved to nearby airports in Thomson, Georgia, or Aiken, South Carolina.A photo rendering of NetJets' new Augusta terminal.Credit: Courtesy of NetJetsThe real battle however, begins after the jets land. Jet companies are renting out mansions to create branded pop-up clubs, hiring Michelin-star chefs and well-known mixologists, hosting nightly parties with the biggest names in golf, and vying to attract the top players and announcers as headliners. Many are even staging private concerts with Grammy-winning country stars. The spending...
The Business Of The Masters: Augusta 2026
There are bigger events in sports. There are louder ones. There are certainly more commercial ones. But there is no event that feels as controlled, as deliberate, or as valuable as the Masters.The 2026 Masters arrives at an inflection point. Amazon Prime Video enters the broadcast for the first time, extending Augusta’s reach without compromising its control. The tournament purse is expected to climb toward 22 million dollars. Augusta National’s real estate holdings are now valued at roughly 267 million dollars. Hospitality spans everything from a 99 dollar at home experience to packages that exceed 200 thousand dollars. And yet, despite this expansion, the core model has not changed.That is what makes the Masters different.While the rest of the sports industry races to maximize inventory, the Masters continues to limit it. While others chase scale, Augusta refines scarcity. The result is a property that generates more than 200 million dollars a year, reaches over 180 markets globally, and delivers one of the most premium audiences in all of sport.This report is not about what the Masters could be worth. That story has been told before. This is about how it actually works today at full power in 2026. How a tournament that deliberately does less continues to outperform events that do more. How scarcity is turned into pricing power. How control becomes a competitive advantage. And why every decision, from media rights to hospitality, is designed to protect something far more valuable than short term revenue.If you want to understand where the business of elite sport is heading next, it starts here.There is a framing problem with how most people analyze the Masters. They compare it to other golf majors, maybe to the Super Bowl, and evaluate it on standard sports business metrics: viewership, rights fees, sponsorship revenue, ticket yield. By those measures the Masters performs exceptionally well. But that analysis fundamentally misreads what Augusta National has built, because the Masters is not competing with the U.S. Open or the PGA Championship. It is competing, whether the club would ever use this language or not, with Hermès and Patek Philippe. The operating logic is identical. The most powerful commercial strategy in the world is telling people they cannot have something, and no one in sport executes that strategy with more precision than Augusta National.
Masters Golf Tournament Draws Influx of Private Jets to Augusta
Every April, the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, Georgia, attracts a massive influx of private jets, with over 2,100 expected to fly into the area this year. The small regional Augusta Regional Airport transforms into a bustling hub of private aviation activity, with planes arriving and departing in near-constant succession during the week of the tournament. Private aviation companies ...
Masters Private Jet Demand Nears 4,000 Flights—and Counting
Ahead of this year's tournament, several private aviation companies were seeing increased demand compared to last year.
