Super Bowl LIX will Bring an Unprecedented Stream of VIP Private Jets to Lakefront Airport
Jan. 19—It was a big moment for New Orleans' Lakefront Airport in October when Taylor Swift arrived on her gleaming $40 million Dassault Falcon 900LX. The globe-trotting superstar flew in ahead of her three-night Eras Tour stand at the Caesars Superdome, and officials at the small airfield were prepped to provide VIP treatment.
That was nothing compared to what's coming for Super Bowl LIX.
For the five-day Super Bowl "weekend" running from Feb. 6 through Feb. 10, the New Orleans East airport is preparing for a stream of Hollywood and music industry celebrities and thousands of other VIPs.
Nearly 1,200 private aircraft are scheduled to arrive — more than three times the volume Lakefront typically sees during the Sugar Bowl or other big events. According to Bruce Martin, director of aviation at Lakefront, the airport has gone into overdrive working out the logistics that all the air traffic and VIPs will entail.
"There's going to be a lot of heavy metal coming through here for the Super Bowl," said Martin during an interview Thursday at the 473-acre lakefront airfield.
Lakefront typically hosts a fleet of single-engine Cessna and Beechcraft Bonanza propeller aircraft favored by its regular private pilots. It also regularly serves corporate leaders using the popular Gulfstream 500 model, a $45 million luxury flyer.
For the Super Bowl, officials are expecting to accommodate an unprecedented number of the biggest jets its runway and facilities can handle, like the Boeing Business Jet, a modified 737 blinged out with luxury amenities for executives and celebrities, which has a price tag starting at $100 million.
Things were quiet out at the facilities along Lake Pontchartrain on Thursday as officials showed off the grounds on a golf-cart tour. A smattering of planes were idle on a square-mile tarmac known as "the ball park," but things will change soon enough. Dozens of pallets of rubber wheel chocks — used to hold aircraft in place — were piled up nearby, ready to be used when the area is crammed with big jets on gameday.
Who will arrive?
Though New Orleans is used to hosting big events, the Super Bowl is a different order of magnitude, with hundreds of thousands of visitors expected for a week of official NFL events and corporate schmoozing. The Lakefront airport preparations are part of a massive citywide program to spruce up while the world's attention is turned to the city.
As with most elements of the Super Bowl, the NFL has taken a hands on approach to planning how to accommodate VIPs at the airport, which likely will include Commissioner Roger Goodell, NFL team owners and other top league honchos.
NFL staff have visited the airport several times in the last year to work out details of flight scheduling and airplane parking, as well as how VIPs would make their way through the airport and into waiting limousines.
For security reasons, the airport doesn't get advance notice of which organizations or passengers will be arriving and is provided only with the tail numbers of the planes. However, based on other Super Bowls, some A-listers are sure to arrive.
Swift attended last year's NFL finale in Las Vegas, there to support Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs. There were lots of other big names too, like Beyoncé, Lady Gaga and Elon Musk. First Lady Jill Biden was in Glendale, Arizona, the year before to support the Philadelphia Eagles.
This year, Kendrick Lamar, who will be headlining the halftime show, likely will make his way through Lakefront.
The VIP numbers will be swelled by executives, including the Super Bowl's corporate sponsors, which typically fly in top brass as well as favored clients and celebrity guests. Pepsi, which is sponsoring several pregame events in the city, and Apple Music, the halftime show's corporate sponsor, will also have a big VIP presence.
Many other companies' top executives with no direct role in the game or its official events also typically attend and entertain favored clients.
Air-traffic control
Lakefront is classified as a "general aviation airport," which means flights usually aren't scheduled as they are at commercial counterparts like Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport in Kenner.
"But we can't have that for the Super Bowl," Martin said.
Flights in and out of the airport for the Super Bowl weekend have all been pre-scheduled. The airport and the two private companies that provide services — called fixed-base operators, or FBOs — are planning to use as much of the airport's 473 acres as possible to park jets. Two of the three runways and all but one of the six taxiways will be closed down in order to maximize parking space.
"For the last Super Bowl (in New Orleans, in 2013), anyone could come and there were no reservations required," said Wendy Bell, general manager of Flightline First, the locally-owned FBO founded in 2007 by late New Orleans businessman James Robinson.
"Because the airplanes are so big now, we're only accommodating reservations and every one of them is at least a Gulfstream or a Global," Bell said, the latter referring to Bombardier Global models, which are about 100 feet long and seat around 20 passengers.
Few of the VIPs are likely to make their way through Lakefront's historic terminal building, which was opened in 1934 and has been described as "an artistic and architectural gem" for its classic Art Deco design by New Orleans architect Leon Weiss.
The post-Hurricane Katrina restoration of the terminal reopened the entire interior space and its murals and other design details. However, the evocative Runway Café in the main hall at the terminal is now only used for special events.
The thousands of VIP visitors coming through for the Super Bowl will be met by a fleet of limousines, which will be synchronized to move from the outside parking lots through the gates to meet them on the tarmac at their aircraft, or at the FBOs' facilities before they are whisked off into the city, Martin said.
Still, the Super Bowl is seen by Lakefront airport staff and New Orleans economic boosters as a big opportunity. The airport will charge $1,000 per customer and the FBOs will charge up to $17,000 for a reservation, depending on the size of the plane. It's only the second time an event fee has been charged. The last one, for the 2024 Sugar Bowl, was $500.
Flightline First and Signature, the other FBO at Lakefront, have stocked up on jet fuel and expect record demand. A fuel surcharge is the airport's largest source of income and Martin estimates they will make an additional $750,000 from fuel sales.
Handshakes and upgrades
GNO Inc., the regional economic development agency, plans to have "an army of volunteers," including local business people, at the airport to promote business opportunities.
"We're arming the volunteers with talking points and broad facts about where the economy is heading, what industries are thriving, why they are doing well here," said GNO spokesperson Matthew Wolfe.
One of the city's Super Bowl infrastructure priorities was to resurface the 2-mile length of Downman Road from the airport entrance at Hayne Boulevard, through Pines Village in New Orleans East to Chef Menteur Highway.
The disrepair of that stretch of road and its pavements has cost Lakefront airport business in the past, Martin said.
"I've been here six years now and we've had potential customers who've looked at us to launch aircraft services but decided not to because they didn't want to bring clients through that corridor," he said.
"That is going to have a massive lasting impact for us," he said. "The goal is to make it as smooth and safe as we can for everyone so they're hungry to come back to Lakefront."
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