Taylor Swift plane
Taylor
Swift’s Private Jet: Details About The $40m Dassault Falcon
Wildly
successful musicians and private jets tend to go hand in hand. Elvis
had one, Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson pilots his own, and Taylor
Swift has two. Swift’s Dassault Falcon 900 is $40 million worth of
luxury jet. Still, that’s pocket change to Swift. She’s arguably the
world’s most popular singer at the moment, with her Era’s tour
grossing close to $1 billion in 2023, and she’ll potentially double
that in 2024. That would make it the highest-grossing tour of all
time.
Air
traffic is closely tracked for numerous reasons. Firstly, it’s
important to ensure planes aren’t getting too close to one another as
mid-air collisions are something everyone wants to avoid. Then
there’s the fact countries like to know what’s going on within their
airspace. As a result, each jet has a unique ID number. This allows
the jet to identify itself and means authorities can quickly get
information about the aircraft, who’s on it, and who owns
it.
Swift’s jet ID (N898TS) is the billionaire’s equivalent of
a custom license plate; it contains a couple of references to the
singer, namely her year of birth (1989) and her initials (TS).
Separating the two is the number eight, which has a bit less meaning
following her recent successes — but was pretty relevant back
when she purchased the Falcon 900. She had a total of eight number
ones at the time, but that number stands at 11 at the time of
writing.
The nods to Swift and her career don’t just stop at
the jet ID. The aircraft itself has the number 13 painted on the
side. The Falcon 900 has been repainted to a grey/silver color now.
That number apparently has a lot of meaning to Swift, who in contrast
with standard superstitions considers it lucky. She’s been known to
play gigs with 13 painted on her hand, she was born on Friday the
13th, turned 13 on Friday the 13th, and her first album went gold in
13 weeks. Her company is also called 13 Management.
The
Dassault 900 isn’t a particularly new jet design, having first taken
to the air in the 1980s. Still, there are a few reasons that the
French aircraft has been a go-to for private flyers over the past
four decades. The jet itself is a follow-on from the popular Falcon
50 — though it’s a little more spacious. The 900 is designed to
carry between 12 and 14 passengers, four to six more than the Falcon
50’s eight. At a push, 19 people can be seated inside the jet, so
there’s plenty of room for Swift and the inner circle of her
entourage. The hold can handle around 18 average-sized bags, and the
total interior space is a comfortable 1,267 cubic feet.
Swift
isn’t the only one working hard on Eras. Her Dassault Falcon 900 has
winged the "Blank Space" singer between several stops on
the U.S. leg of the tour. Swift also seems to have a soft spot for
Dassault’s aircraft, as she also owns a Dassault Falcon 7X and
previously owned a Dassault Falcon 50. The latter was sold back in
2020 with the funds going to charity, joining the growing list of
Swift’s beloved vehicles that have gone under the hammer for a good
cause.
But the jet Swift really has a "Love Story"
with is definitely the 900, which is her go-to for most trips. She
may even be relying on the French aircraft a little too much if
certain areas of her fanbase are to be believed. Here’s what we know
about Taylor Swift’s main ride in the sky.
In total, around
160 Falcon 900s and 900Bs were made, with the last of them being
delivered back in 1991. A top speed of 552 mph means traveling
musicians can certainly make it to their destinations swiftly. With a
4,428-mile range, international trips are also possible and the jet
can go between any two points in the continental U.S. quite
comfortably. The combination of comfort, speed, range, and a
reputation built over decades makes this a solid choice of private
aircraft.
While no photographs of Swift’s personal plane are publicly available, Dassault’s website has a 3D tour of the 900LX model showing reclining leather seats with work tables as well as a couch underneath the cabin’s starboard side windows.
The
Falcon 900 has some special luxury appointments to make Swift’s
travels more comfortable. The 12-passenger cabin has a fully equipped
kitchen as well as a bathroom with a shower, and Swift’s Falcon 900
also reportedly includes a private bedroom so she can get some
quality shut-eye between gigs.
The jet is powered by three
Honeywell TFE731-60 engines, which give it a range of 4,750 nautical
miles, a maximum flying altitude of 51,000 feet, and a top speed of
87% of the speed of sound, which equates to about 667.5 mph. The
Falcon 900 also features Dassault’s state-of-the-art FalconEye vision
assist system, which allows pilots to see better at night and in foul
weather conditions.
She’s faced criticism for how often she
allegedly uses her private jets
Swift has used her private jet
extensively during the first year of her Eras
tour. While it may make sense to use a jet you own to travel between
cities you’re performing in, the choice isn’t sitting well with some
of her fans. According to reports that surfaced in August, Swift’s
jet spent around 166 hours in the air during the first half of 2023.
The time was split over 166 flights, which is close to one per day.
This isn’t a new development either, with data from 2022 suggesting
one of her jets, the Dassault 7X, was responsible for about 1,200
times the average person’s CO2 output that year.
Apparently,
Swift lets friends and family use her jet quite regularly — so
not all of the travel was her doing. A quote given to Business
Insider
also suggests that
Swift is spending big to offset her jet’s carbon emissions. The
spokesperson said: "Before the tour kicked off in March of 2023,
Taylor purchased more than double the carbon credits needed to offset
all tour travel." Swift’s 2022 flights emitted about 8,293.54
tons of carbon into the atmosphere.
If 2023 was similar, and
the first six months of flights suggest it was, the singer probably
parted with a significant amount of cash to offset it. With carbon
credits costing between $40 and $80 per ton, and Swift allegedly
buying double her output, she could be spending well over a million
dollars per year to help offset her private jet use. Still, despite
the donations, there’s a chance Swift’s love of private air travel
could cause some "Bad Blood" between her and the Swifties.
Gone
are the days of old-school tour buses and living on the road. Now,
pop stars like Taylor Swift are likely to fly straight home after a
concert.
Swift and her two private jets have spent the last several months crisscrossing the US throughout the first leg of her Colossal Eras Tour.
The singer has two multi-million dollar planes: a Dassault Falcon 7x, registered N621MM under Island Jet Inc, and a Dassault Falcon 900, registered N898TS under SATA LLC. Both companies are registered to the same address as Taylor Swift Productions in Nashville, according to Tennessee Secretary of State documents.
The Dassault 900 jet can carry up to 12 passengers and requires a two-person crew. The Dassault 7x has a slightly larger cabin, carrying up to 16 passengers, and is designed for longer flights.
Swift
appears to have bought both aircraft several years ago. The planes
were registered to her holding companies in 2009 and 2018,
respectively, according
to FAA data.
Today,
a new Dassault7X
is estimated to cost about $54 million, while a new Dassault
900
has a list price of $44 million, according to Business Jet Traveler.
Since March, the planes have spent nearly seven days worth of time, or about 166 hours, flying to and from Swift’s concerts, according to data from aircraft-tracking website JetSpy.
JetSpy aggregates its flight information using ADS-B data that is transmitted from several vendors and networks. ADS-B is a public surveillance technology that broadcasts information like GPS location and altitude from one aircraft to another and to ground stations. The technology made headlines last year when it was used to broadcast Elon Musk’s flight data on social media.
Here’s a closer look at the flight activity of Swift’s jets during the first five months of her Eras tour.
Swift’s jets have taken a combined 103 flights so far this year — 86 of which have taken place since massive Eras tour kicked off in March 2023
A spokesperson for Swift told Insider the singer has worked to offset her jets’ carbon emissions.
"Before the tour kicked off in March of 2023, Taylor purchased more than double the carbon credits needed to offset all tour travel," the spokesperson said. Insider was not able to independently verify this.
In 2023, carbon credits cost between $40 to $80 per metric ton of CO2, according to Terrapass, a company that provides carbon offsetting products. Earlier this year, The Washington Post reported that some experts believe the majority of carbon credit programs overestimate their emission reductions.
There is no way of knowing the jets’ passengers for any of the flights. Both jets appear to have primarily followed locations along the singer’s tour route, which kicked off in Glendale, Arizona, on March 17, 2023.
The average flight during the tour has been just under two hours. The shortest flight was an eight-minute hop from a small airport in Van Nuys, California, to Burbank, California, on March 26. (This could have been a pilot repositioning the plane.)
The longest flight was on July 2, when Swift’s Dassault 7X jet flew from Groton New London Airport in Connecticut to Bob Hope Airport in Burbank.
The roughly 5-hour flight appeared to be part of a return trip from an airport near one of Swift’s houses in Rhode Island.
Swift’s jets often made red-eye flights out of concert locations.
On multiple occasions, both of Swift’s jets made duplicate flights in one day or flew from different locations to the same destination. Swift’s Dassault 900 jet typically flew to concerts from her adopted hometown of Nashville, Tennessee — and would head back after the show.
The singer has homes in cities including Nashville, New York, and Beverly Hills, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Throughout the tour, Swift’s N898TS jet often departed from tour locations late at night — typically taking off between the hours of 11 p.m. to midnight and landing in Nashville as early as 4:38 a.m. the next day. Most of the late-night flights landed between the hours of midnight and 1:30. a.m.
The second jet — N621MM — mostly followed N898TS, though it also took detours to places like Burbank; Tampa, Florida; and a New Jersey airport located about an hour’s drive outside of New York City. Meanwhile, N898TS rarely deviated from the tour schedule.
While the first leg of Swift’s marathon Eras tour is complete, her days of jet-setting are far from over. The singer has already started touring in Mexico and one of her jets has already made a red-eye flight from Mexico City to Nashville, according to JetSpy data. She will also bring Eras to Canada, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. More recently, Swift announced she would return to the US for another leg of the tour later next year.
Swift is one of the world’s highest-paid artists and her tour is set to bring in over $1 billion in sales — making it the highest-grossing tour of all time, according to concert data tracker Pollstar.
While the lengthy tour may excite fans, her jet usage could ignite some criticism.
Last year, data from digital marketing firm Yard found the singer’s Dassault 7X private jet emitted over 8,293 metric tons of CO2 in 2022 — or nearly 1,200 times the average person’s total yearly emissions, according to the study.
At the time, Swift’s spokesperson said that she regularly lent the jets out.
"To attribute most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect," the spokesperson told E! News.
It appears Swift has cut back on flights this year. According to the data from JetSpy, her two planes took a combined 138 flights between January 2022 and August 2022, when she wasn’t on tour. That compares to the 103 total flights as of August 29 this year.
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