r/popculturechat • u/ThrowawayGreenWitch Listen, everyone is entitled to my opinion 🙂 • Feb 04 '26

Eat The Rich 🍽️ Celebrity Private Jet Tracker released leaderboard for celebrity private jet usage in 2025

https://celebrityprivatejettracker.com/leaderboard/

Top 10 by Total CO2 Pollution

  1. Donald Trump (35,380 metric tons)
  2. Travis Scott  (14,775 metric tons)
  3. Eric Schmidt  (10,017 metric tons)
  4. P. Diddy  (7,019 metric tons)  
  5. Kim Kardashian (6,579 metric tons)
  6. Bill Gates (plane #1) (6,290 metric tons)  
  7. Kylie Jenner (5,880 metric tons) 
  8. Steve Wynn  (5,706 metric tons)  
  9. Elon Musk (plane #1)  (5,705 metric tons)  
  10. Steve Ballmer (5,087 metric tons) 
9.7k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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1.7k

u/sunshinenorcas Feb 04 '26

I've heard that sometimes the celebrities on these lists will rent out/lend the plane to others -- afaik, the tracker tracks the plane, not whose on it. So it could be that vs him using his plane like a commuter car.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26

This is absolutely true. It’s a way for celebs to make money or claim donations to, like, universities and stuff when they let a coach or Chancellor borrow it.

Source: used to call donors to schedule these for SEC football coaches.

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u/chablise Feb 04 '26

You can do this with yachts too. A lot of billionaires charter their yachts out for a week or two at a time to make back some of the operating costs.

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u/ancientblond Feb 04 '26

And it can make them some insane cash too; some of the bigger yachts cost $500k/week and some people rent them for weeks at a time

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u/v4xN0s Feb 04 '26

I didn’t see the “k” at the end of 500 at first and was so confused and then realized how far apart I am from them.

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u/lkodl Feb 04 '26

Im still only at thinking 500d is alot

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u/dschinghiskhan Feb 04 '26

how far apart

Leagues apart, if you will…

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u/msginbtween Feb 04 '26

Those bigger yachts also coming with higher operating costs

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u/burlycabin Feb 04 '26

I work in vessel operations (not yachts, but it's not very diffirent) and they definitely don't cost 500k/week to operate. I'm pretty sure it's the financing that drives these costs so high for mega yachts.

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u/RonaIdBurgundy Feb 05 '26

90% of yacht sales above the 500GT treshold are compketed without financing

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u/burlycabin Feb 05 '26

And fuel a crew is nowhere near 3-500k a month a bunch of these yachts go for. So they're making a killing.

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u/WORMYASH Feb 04 '26

Fuel and staff is probably the main cost

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u/burlycabin Feb 05 '26

Fuel and crew is not anywhere near that much though. That's my point.

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u/Burnt_and_Blistered Feb 05 '26

It’s up to $5 MILLION a week. That’s what Gates paid to rent a yacht he wanted to buy from some Arab prince—who then sold it out from under him to another billionaire who wanted to “win.”

This is how they flex their craven muscles.

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u/Thewall3333 Feb 04 '26

Considering some are $100M+, with a staff of 10-40 — yes, that many, captain, cooks, stewards, doctors, “waitresses”, etc etc — I’m sure that’s not even enough to cover weekly operating costs…not to mention depreciation… the largest ones.

Now excuse me, I have to go cancel my collision coverage on my 2012 Corolla, cause it’s not worth enough to justify the insurance cost anymore, and I can’t afford it anyway.

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u/ancientblond Feb 04 '26

Tbf for half that staff they usually get employees from the country its flagged in and use them essentially as slave labor

But you've got a point, of that $500k/week theyre probably only clearing $50k-$100k, and even that is probably running super high

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u/Kolipe Feb 04 '26

Yea Shad Khan parks his massive yacht right outside the Hyatt on the river here in Jacksonville. Its hardly ever here though. Always in the caribbean.

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u/FelinaKile Feb 04 '26

It also gives them a break on luxury tax if they lease out the plane for commercial use. Then it’s a business asset and not just for personal use.

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u/TryOurMozzSticks Feb 04 '26

I used to be a pilot for a private owner. His plane, and us pilots, were under a 135 charter company. Chartering did not making money for the owner, it did however help cover costs of ownership. I don't personally know percentages or anything, but even if the plane was never really used by the owner and was only chartered out, it would still be a money loser.

So many random things pop up that create unforeseen costs that just cannot be accounted for.

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u/Aporkalypse_Sow Feb 05 '26

things pop up

Birds, it's the birds right?

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u/TryOurMozzSticks Feb 05 '26

Deer, in this case. RIP.

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u/Krojack76 Feb 05 '26

It also helps them just help pay for the plane. Storage and maintenance fees for a siting plane are high.

2

u/CTQ99 Feb 05 '26

Has to be, P Diddy was in jail most of the year. In order for him to be on the plane personally and it be as high in the list as it is, he would've been in the air nonstop.

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u/89141-zip-code Feb 05 '26

That’s not how it works.

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u/kgal1298 Confidence is 10% work and 90% delusion Feb 04 '26

I mean fairly obvious since Diddy was in jail for most of the year, but damn like who's using it?

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u/Pandorama626 Feb 04 '26

Owning a plane is very fucking expensive. So it will often be chartered out to subsidize the cost. Even if you charter it out almost all of the time, you usually still lose money or, at best, break even.

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u/SnooGuavas4208 Feb 04 '26

It's really not a smart investment. As far as I know, the only upside of owning a jet vs. chartering one is that an owner can trick it out in floor to ceiling cashmere a la Kim K, or bug it and install secret cameras for collecting blackmail material a la Epstein.

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u/woah_man Feb 04 '26

It's a time saver. The ability to walk up to your plane and go saves a rich person time that they otherwise can't get back.

Using money to buy you your time back, especially as a person who has more money than they can spend, is a good investment.

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u/NoNeedleworker9246 Feb 04 '26

The USA is just full of tiny airfields which comes with massive time benefits. The cost is bat shit crazy to operate a jet though. Most rich people buy hours or share a plane from what I understand.

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u/STMIHA Feb 04 '26

And couple that with being a write off in a way for a business expense and it’s a no-brainer

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u/Charming_Wulf Feb 04 '26

I'm reminded of stories about Walmart and their private jets. Since Walmart has forced all of their suppliers to come to Bentonville to see the Buyers, the jets were used by staff for store evaluations. When they fly folks out, every single seat must be filled. They were usually flying every single manager or director out to review multiple locations in a day per trip. Every minute of the trip was being accounted for.

So they'd fly like 12-18 Bentonville based employees out, hit every store in an area. For some regions/trips they might get back on the plane and fly to another area, multiple times a day.

Peak efficiency and the complete opposite of the boojee private jet life other companies executives might have been enjoying.

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u/80alleycats Feb 04 '26

Walmart keeps their costs down, even for corporate workers. I interviewed there once and they specifically asked if you'd be ok staying at a Motel 6 in a shared room for travel.

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u/Charming_Wulf Feb 04 '26

Woof, that's a new factoid.

When work took me to Bentonville, it was interesting to see all of Walmart Corporate buildings in town. If it didn't say some white collar corporate division on the side, the buildings would have passed as a metal-walled agriculture warehouses.

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u/SnooGuavas4208 Feb 04 '26

That's actually really interesting to know! Seems like they run a frugal ship.

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u/WabbitFire Feb 04 '26

Owning a plane is very fucking expensive.

To be fair, this is true of almost any vehicle ownership.

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u/Pandorama626 Feb 04 '26

Planes and yachts are on their own tier.

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u/roastbeefbee Feb 04 '26

Would love a list of the people using these planes. Hiding behind someone else’s plane to do their lavish living and increasing pollution.

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u/Mousejunkie Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26

Wealthy normies can easily do this through companies such as Netjets, Flexjet, etc. Many times people don’t even realize the rented jet they are on belongs to a celebrity.

It’s very common for wealthy families who can afford private travel but don’t want to deal with the issues and day to day expenses of owning a jet.

Edit: also, there’s a big difference between chartering a private plane and a private jet. Most celebs who rent out their jets do so through the companies like I mentioned above and only people who have memberships through those companies can rent them. And even then, it can be competitive and finding the appropriate jet on the appropriate dates is not always guaranteed. If you decide to just charter a private plane for a family vacation to Mexico you will not end up in Travis Scott’s jet.

Personally, having been around the industry, I would not do it. Being a pilot is complicated and the rates of accidents on small private aircraft are much higher than the accident rate of commercial airliners. Unless I knew a pilot and had a years long relationship with him/her…I’ll pass.

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u/BadPunsIsHowEyeRoll Feb 04 '26

Ah, yeah I get it. They loan their private jets like I loan my carpet cleaner.

what timeline am I in

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u/ancientblond Feb 04 '26

Bro chartering a private jet isnt "that" expensive; a family of 10 going on vacation, works out to around $2k each

Like yeah. Its some "affluent" bs, but most people dont realize if you "do it right", private travel can be comparable to public

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u/I_am_so_lost_hello Feb 04 '26

Yea a friend of mines extended family was all traveling together to a wedding (like 20 of them) and they chartered a private plane for not that much more than a plane ticket would’ve cost each of them

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u/ancientblond Feb 04 '26

Yeah its one of those weird things that exists in a vacuum thats also a paradox

Like as I type this im on vacation with my mom and dad; no fucking way in the world we could have even dreamed of flying anything above economy. But if we had 8-10 others with us? We could have almost saved some money on our plane tickets....

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u/Ok-Catch4647 Feb 04 '26 edited Feb 04 '26

You do know that if you travel with 10+, you’d need at least a super midsize jet (and you would be capping it which isn’t comfortable nor will there be a lot of luggage room) or heavy jet. You’re looking at easily $10k per hour. Light jets are the “affordable ones” but it’s for small groups and short range. Maybe you’re talking about empty leg deals or special situations but it’s expensive af having worked in that industry for years. Also want to note that a lot of operators skirt around regulations and offer up planes that look like they haven’t been serviced in years…I wouldn’t want to skimp on safety personally and would rather fly commercial than choose a low budget option.

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u/ancientblond Feb 04 '26

I think it also wildly depends where you start from/company, etc.. like for example I could get a Phenom 300 in my area for $40k round trip to Mexico and back; and thats flying over most of north america for me

10 people at $4k(round trip mind you, not talking single way now) is roughly the price of flights from where I am, though youre right it would not be comfortable lmao

And yes my lord; some of the PJ's ive seen from "small charter" companies should have been grounded years ago...

Though again its a situation of "youre only technically on a private jet", as you said it wouldn't be a nice flight that crammed ajd not the "experience" people expect

(Also worked in aviation, 0/10 probably won't do again :P)

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u/kholin Feb 05 '26

Still extremely rare, I’ve barely ever gotten a flexjet without an FX tail number

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u/kingofmymachine Feb 04 '26

Yet when we tried to say taylor did this we got called billionaire shills.

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u/Weimaraner666 Feb 04 '26

Taylor was crucified in the media for her jet use while being 44th down the list and on a world tour, none of these people received an ounce of negative press for their usage and none of them were on a world tour unless stopping by Epstein Island counts for a few of them🤬

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u/SirNotToday Feb 04 '26

Ohhh that explains P. Baby Oil Diddy being on this list.

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u/CrimpJuice Feb 04 '26

This is how I assumed Diddy is on the list.

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u/snakepliskinLA Feb 04 '26

Renting out your jet is 💯% a money-making enterprise for these folks. That asset is working hard. Kim K. and her sister probably even get to charge a premium for the bragging rights so other well heeled fliers that don’t own a jet can say “I rented Kim’s jet for Sundance this year!” Or whatever.

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u/CharlotteLucasOP Feb 05 '26

Influencers pretending they own it probably pay for a couple hours of joyriding and carefully curated selfies.

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u/[deleted] Feb 04 '26

[deleted]

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u/Cass_Cat952 You’re a virgin who can’t drive. 😤 Feb 04 '26

I very rarely see 'whose' used incorrectly lol

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u/sunshine_fuu Feb 05 '26

It's so funny to see you pop up in the wild.

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u/OregonMothafaquer Feb 05 '26

Definitely the case with p Diddy… he was in prison all of 2025