Taylor Swift is being ridiculed for frequently traveling by private plane. But some flights did not actually carry the singer.

Taylor Swift at the Eras Tour concert in Australia. Photo: AAP.

Over the past week, netizens have continuously ridiculed and criticized Swift’s habit of flying on private planes. “Taylor Swift is on her way downstairs to pick up the order,” one person sarcastically wrote under a clip depicting the singer sitting on a helicopter.

Others joked that Swift would use her jet to take out the trash or ask neighbors for some sugar.

Quietly sold the plane

These sarcastic comments are referring to a series of flights that one of the jets associated with the singer took late last month.

However, Swift may not be responsible for these flights at all. According to data from the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the flights took place at the same time the singer “quietly said goodbye to her Dassault Falcon 900 jet last month”.

According to data from the aircraft tracking website JetSpy, on January 30, the plane made two short flights between an airport in Illinois and one in Missouri. The first time was 21 minutes and the second time was only 8 minutes.

Swift travels by private jet. Photo: Flynet Pictures.

Jack Sweeney, a student famous for tracking the planes of Swift and other stars, posted on X: “These short flights may be maintenance or test flights.”

Swift still owns another private jet, the Dassault 7X. Over the past few months, the shortest trips her plane has taken have been 35-40 minutes, including trips to St. Louis – Nashville and Las Vegas – Burbank, California.

The singer owns properties in both Nashville and Los Angeles. Many of her itineraries also seem to follow the Eras Tour route.

Swift’s shortest flight in the past year was an eight-minute flight in March 2023, likely due to a pilot repositioning the plane between two Los Angeles-area airports, Van Nuys Airport and Bob Hope, both on the city’s north side.

Repositioning a private jet in the charter world is often for operational needs, such as flying a customer down to one airport and then flying 10 minutes across town to another airport for pickup. other passengers.

For super-rich celebrities like Swift, it’s a lot more important than convenience. For example, a person might land at a large international airport on their arriving flight, but then reposition their plane at a smaller airport nearby to avoid crowds and hassle.

In Swift’s case, when arriving in Los Angeles, Van Nuys airport is the ideal landing point, but Bob Hope airport is in a more convenient location for departure.

Fly anonymously

This isn’t the first time Swift has faced criticism for traveling by private jet. In 2022, Swift is said to top the list of celebrities with the most carbon emissions from private jets.

Last year, Business Insider reported that the singer’s private jet flew more than 166 hours during the first US leg of her Eras Tour.

Between concerts, she also spends a lot of time flying to Kansas, where her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, plays for the Kansas City Chiefs football team. Among Swift’s 2023 airports with the most arrivals, Kansas’ Charles B. Wheeler Downtown airport ranked third, according to JetSpy.

A spokesperson for Swift previously said that the singer purchased carbon credits to offset her use of private jets.

Swift regularly travels by private jet to Kansas to see her boyfriend Travis Kelce. Photo: UPI.

The female singer also avoided having her flight tracked. She tried to fly anonymously using the FAA’s privacy ICAO aircraft address program, also known as PIA.

Recently, the Anti‐Hero singer also threatened to sue Jack Sweeney, the student who tracked her jet using public data.

“I think people are concerned,” Sweeney told Business Insider about the letter Swift’s lawyer sent him. “You need to know that your jet will be tracked, whether I do it or not. After all, it’s public information.”