Swift Streaks To LAX

In what looked more like a high-level military extraction operation than the travel itinerary of a pop star, Taylor Swift was back in the U.S. a full day ahead of the Super Bowl featuring her boyfriend Travis Kelce. One of the most watched celebrity jet flights ever (at one point 12,000 people were logged into Flightradar24 watching the icon representing the Global 6000 she chartered inch across the Pacific) went off with barely a hitch under scrutiny that seemed to be encouraged by Swift and her team. Celebrity flight tracker Jack Sweeney said on X that the charter company VistaJet told him which aircraft she was on. Flightradar24 labeled the flight The Football Era. Neither VistaJet nor Swift's team responded to our request for comment.

As with any complex logistical operation, preparations began long in advance. Jason Rabinowitz of AirlineFlyer said on X that VistaJet, clearly not wanting to be responsible for Swift missing the game, stationed a backup business jet at Tokyo Haneda Airport in case the plane she was assigned broke. By all accounts the Global 6000 performed as expected and got Swift from Haneda to LAX in the record territory eight hours and 58 minutes, averaging 532.24 knots. For context, Gulfstream set 25 city pair records last year in a G700 promotional tour and the average speed of a few of those trips was in the 510-knot range.

But it seems even the Customs and Border Protection Service wasn't taking any chances, either. Photos by javib23r and reposted by Sweeney show multiple vehicles around the aircraft and a dog and handler outside. While Swift and her entourage dashed through the night to the welcome by the CBP, crews on the other side of the Pacific appeared to be getting her Falcon 7X in position to pick her up in Los Angeles for the 40-minute hop over the mountains to Vegas. The Falcon was flown from Nashville to Burbank Airport on Thursday. The trail goes cold there and it's not clear if she went to Vegas Friday evening or joined the Conga line in Las Vegas on Sunday for the big game.