This upcoming Sunday, February 8, 2026, will see Super Bowl LX take place. The final game of the 2025 NFL season will see the New England Patriots (the AFC champion) facing off against the Seattle Seahawks (the NFC champion) in a highly anticipated rematch of Super Bowl XLIX. Super Bowl LX will be hosted by Santa Clara at Levi’s Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area (undoubtedly a bittersweet moment for 49ers fans), which means that travel demand to the Bay Area will spike during Super Bowl weekend.

While airlines are scheduling additional capacity into the Bay Area for Super Bowl weekend, there’s only so much flexibility in airline schedules to accommodate a spike in demand for a single weekend, and with Super Bowl LX tickets now costing thousands of dollars, the clientele making last-minute plans to attend the Super Bowl seldom flies on a 737 in economy. As such, demand for private jets will be high as well, and naturally, the teams need to travel to the Bay Area as well.

An Influx Of Private Jets To The Bay Area

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The primary airport to get football fans to Levi’s Stadium will be San Jose Mineta International Airport. While San Jose is the largest city in the Bay Area, San Jose Mineta International Airport is the region’s second-busiest airport, far behind San Francisco International Airport. It’s also a significantly smaller airport than SFO, but it’s the closest airfield to Levi’s Stadium. As such, most private jets will be landing at San Jose Mineta International Airport, greatly increasing aircraft movements compared to normal.

In total, it’s expected that San Jose Mineta International Airport will receive roughly 300 private jets before Super Bowl LX on February 8, and close to 315 business jets will leave San Jose after the Super Bowl. San Jose sees between 400 and 500 aircraft movements per day on average, so the additional private jets will prove a dramatic increase. It’ll have to be an “all hands on deck” operation for airport staff, and the two FBOs (Atlantic Aviation, Signature Flight Support) will be at capacity.

It’s estimated that every year, close to 600 private jets visit the host city for the Super Bowl. San Jose Mineta International Airport lacks the capacity to accommodate such an influx of aircraft, so planes will need to fly into other airports. SFO is the region’s largest airport, and Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport is a similar distance from Levi’s Stadium as SFO. In addition, Palo Alto Airport is near Levi’s Stadium for those traveling aboard small propeller aircraft.

Private Jet Travel To The Super Bowl

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The NFL (National Football League) is the most popular sports league in the United States, and the Super Bowl, the league’s championship game, is the most-watched sporting event in the United States. While over 120 million people watch the Super Bowl every year, in-person attendance is limited to the capacity of the stadium (68,500 in the case of the Levi’s Stadium). Demand is high, and supply is limited, meaning that Super Bowl tickets skew towards a wealthier crowd, with last-minute tickets costing thousands of dollars.

Those who can afford to charter a private jet typically live on the coasts and in Texas, so most business jets will be arriving from these areas. American football has less appeal internationally, so most business jets will be flying domestically. However, the NFL has been expanding its international reach, particularly in Europe, and so it’s expected that several aircraft will be traveling to San Jose from foreign nations. However, this will be the minority.

The Super Bowl is a cultural phenomenon in the US, and as such, the game will not just be attended by wealthy customers, but also by celebrities. Scores of celebrities attend the Super Bowl every year, and you’ll find the business jets of these individuals mixed with chartered and personal jets. One public figure who will not be attending Super Bowl LX, however, is President Donald Trump, who made history in 2025 at Super Bowl LIX as the first sitting president to attend the Super Bowl.

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The Most Important Private Jet Visiting San Jose

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Most NFL teams charter widebody airliners operated by American Airlines, Atlas Air, Delta Air Lines, or United Airlines. The New England Patriots, however, travel on their own personal Boeing 767. Planespotters.net shows that the Patriots currently own two Boeing 767-323ERs, N36NE and N225NE, both of which were formerly operated by American Airlines and are over 34 years old. The team owns both aircraft and leases them out to Omni Air International, which also operates the planes. Omni Air International occasionally uses the 767s for other charters as well.

Named “AirKraft” after the Kraft family (which owns the New England Patriots), these aircraft feature extremely thick seats with added legroom and seatback screens, similar to US domestic first class seats, with a layout varying from six to seven seats per row. While nice, these planes are actually less opulent for the players than a commercial widebody, as the players sit in lie-flat business class seats with direct aisle access. Instead, the benefit of the two 767s is mainly the convenience of transporting players, coaches, staff, and equipment on your own metal.

Given the age of these aircraft, the Patriots picked them up for cheap after they were dumped by American in 2016. With two planes, one can also act as a spare if the other is unavailable. However, the 767s have been rated poorly in the past by the players in NFLPA (NFL Players Association) surveys. Mainly, the players’ concerns revolved around the age of the seats, the lack of onboard connectivity, and the 767’s size (likely resulting in narrower seats). As a whole, the Patriots earned an “F” for team travel.

How Will The Seattle Seahawks Reach San Jose?

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Apart from the New England Patriots, the only other NFL team to fly its own jet is the Arizona Cardinals, using an ex-Delta Boeing 777-200ER. Every other team charters commercial airliners, including the Seattle Seahawks. Despite Seattle being home to both an Alaska Airlines and a Delta Air Lines hub, the Seahawks partner with Atlas Air for team transport. Alongside its massive cargo fleet, Atlas Air operates five passenger Boeing 747-400s, which are the largest aircraft used for NFL charters.

On February 1, 2026, N322SG transported the Seahawks on the one-hour and 41-minute flight from Seattle-Tacoma to San Jose, as per Flightradar24. While the Boeing 747-400 is an enormous aircraft with huge cargo capacity, N322SG only features 189 seats. This is because Atlas Air configures this aircraft with 10 first class seats, 143 business class seats, and only 36 economy seats. N322SG features lie-flat seats in first and business class, along with seatback entertainment.

As a whole, NFL players are much larger than the average person, and teams want travel to be as easy as possible to ensure that their athletes perform at their best. In addition to the 53 active roster players, NFL travel parties also consist of all coaches, training staff, medical officials, and other supporting staff. In total, teams can travel with close to 200 individuals, often necessitating a twin-aisle jet due to the need for premium seats. Furthermore, NFL teams transport large amounts of equipment, further necessitating a widebody.

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Who Else Will Be Traveling With The Teams?

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As the NFL’s championship game, the Super Bowl is the game. Naturally, all the players and accompanying staff will be traveling to San Jose. However, staff who usually stay back will also be traveling to Super Bowl LX, which amounts to a significant number of additional passengers. In addition, the two teams are chartering additional aircraft for families and VIP fans. In total, the Patriots and Seahawks will be chartering an additional four to six aircraft, meaning that there could be 10 or more widebodies arriving and departing San Jose during Super Bowl weekend.

Although San Jose can accommodate aircraft as large as a Boeing 747, it’ll be a bigger challenge to accommodate nearly a dozen twin-aisle jets. Not only will this add to the overall flight volume, but the aircraft will also take up extra space on the aircraft’s ramp, when parking space will already be at a premium. With exceptionally high flight volumes and limited space, nearly half of the private jets traveling for the Super Bowl will need to go to either San Francisco International Airport or Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport.

For those traveling commercially, meanwhile, airlines are adding frequencies to San Jose, as well as to SFO and Oakland. As the region’s three largest airlines, United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and Alaska Airlines, stand to gain the most from this spike in demand. In addition, passenger volumes will be particularly high from Seattle and Boston. The fortunate aspect for airlines, meanwhile, is that the Super Bowl occurs during the slow winter season, which means that airlines do have additional flexibility and earn a meaningful revenue boost when overall travel is lower.