Taylor Swift is safe and sound in Tokyo following a ten hour and 40 minute flight from Los Angeles courtesy of a Vista Jet Global 7500 long-range business jet. The westward flight time bodes well for her coming flight next Sunday from Tokyo to Las Vegas. She needs to be in her suite at Allegiant Stadium 14 hours after stepping off the stage in Tokyo to be in time for the kickoff of Super Bowl LXVIII featuring boyfriend Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers.
Flights from North America to Japan typically encounter headwinds, but the long-legged Bombardier will likely get a push on the way back from Tokyo, where Swift’s Eras tour has performances from Wednesday to Saturday. The plane left L.A. just after 5 a.m. Monday morning and landed at Tokyo Haneda at 8:44 a.m. Tuesday. The plane was then ferried to Narita to be parked until the Saturday-night return flight.
As first reported by celebrity airplane tracker Jack Sweeney earlier this week, Swift sold her Falcon 900LX with the registration N898TS but there has been no announcement of a replacement aircraft. According to the FAA register someone reserved tail number N13TS a few days after the sale of the 900 went through. Swift has threatened to sue Sweeney to stop him from publishing her aircraft’s whereabouts citing privacy and security concerns. Sweeney, who is in his early 20s and is attending university in Florida, has countered that he uses publicly available information and argues it’s a free speech issue.
Yawn.
Relief is coming….
Speaking of relief, which wine varietals do you produce Russ?
And by the way, speaking also of wine, neither here nor there, but just to be able to log both flights on the same day and say the I did, I once flight crewed a G from Osaka by way of Anchorage to Wichita, took a nap at home in North Newton, and then flew my 120 from EWK to within a few miles of the factory where it was built. RTB’d to dinner and a glass of cabernet. Being pretty easy to please and down to earth, it was an inexpensive CA label as I recall.
I can’t imagine you got Canadian wine in Kansas (if I follow this itinerary correctly) but we do make a nice Cab from a vineyard about 100 miles south of us in Osoyoos, right on the border, just north of Wenatchee. We also get Malbec from there. We’re a little north so we grow a more cold-tolerant grape called Marechal Foch. Makes a very dark and rich wine that is also quite light on the palate. There are more than 300 wineries in B.C., most of them in our region known as the Okanagan Valley. Very beautiful. Unfortunately, Alberta occasionally exports some of its notorious winter weather here and there is widespread damage to grape vines from a night of -27 C in mid January. Because my grapes are a little more cold tolerant I think I’ll be OK but no Cab or Malbec this year. There. A quick primer on B.C. wine and a plug for a truly wonderful place to visit:)
Under what label?
Edge of the Earth Vineyards
edgeearth.ca
Hey … what about us beer drinkers? 🙂
Thanks for some actually useful information on this page, Russ.
By CA wine I meant California wine. Sorry for misleading you on that. I’ll be looking for Okanagan Valley wine. BTW, my travel trailer is made in Chilliwack.
We’re such a small industry that it’s hard to find Okanagan wine outside of B.C. and Alberta but some of it is definitely worth looking for. It’s an odd little area climatically (hot long summers, generally mild winters) that grapes like. Unfortunately, Nature reminds us we’re in Canada from time to time. I didn’t know there was a travel trailer manufacturer in Chilliwack. What’s the brand?
Maybe you should start making ice wines? Very tasty, but also expensive. 😄
The only real market for icewine is China. It’s really expensive and it’s horrible to make:)
Who cares about Taylor Swift? Not me, for sure
I’m SO relieved to get this news but … “Travis Kelce’s Kansas City Chiefs” … I thought it was Patrick Mahomes’ Chiefs?
You do realize that John Kerry is gonna get wind of this upgrade and will now likely want one for himself. Being able to globe trot to all the climate change venues non-stop — while he is standing up — will enable him to save the planet sooner in total personal comfort.
I sure hope both of ’em know about the coming Boom Aerospace Overture … it is — after all — “100% SAF Optimized for Net Zero Carbon Operation.” They’d be able to satiate the climate whiners moaning about their use of jets while scurrying about the planet performing their essential missions simultaneously.
BTW: I heard on radio today that Elon Musk tried to solve the “Sweeney” problem by offering him $20K … which Sweeney promptly turned down. Is there no place billionaires can hide from stalkers these days?
The John Kerry references are really getting old. I’m begging you, please come up with some fresh material.
OK … gimme a name …
How about “Larry S” for the name?
Tay-Tay and her travels…thank goodness she will be safe! Now I will sleep better!
“celebrity airplane tracker”. I wish I thought of that…
Only in America.
Thanks Russ for keeping us in the loop on the burning issues of the business aviation day!
A century ago young adults were inspired by things called “books”. Future aircraft designers like Igor Sikorsky read Jules Vernes and other authors. In Verne’s “Master of the World”, the villain Robur flew an airship that used rotors for vertical lift. Sikorsky thereafter associated flight with rotors and vertical lift, and never gave up on his dream of this despite his success building large aircraft in his native Russia and America. Today he is remembered most for his invention of the first practical helicopter, inspired by a novel written in the late 19th century. No doubt other icons of the Golden Era of Flight were equally inspired by Jules Verne, Horatio Alger, and other writers of popular fiction. Today we have 34 year old, jet-setting, still unmarried, still childless Taylor Swift, who inspires our youth with lyrics such as this from one of her latest hits: “I feel The lavender haze creeping up on me Surreal I’m dmned if I do give a dmn what people say No deal The 1950s sht they want from me I just wanna stay in that lavender haze.” What will that ever inspire in a young mind? Excuse me for being unimpressed by such so-called artists and their fans.
Swift is gonna Swift, and AFAIK I’m eagerly waiting for Jack Sweeney Celebrity Airplane Tracker’s 15 minutes to expire.
Why, other than the peripheral information that a plane is involved, is a story about a self-indulgent performer whose only involvement in aviation is to charter a jet to take her and her toadies half way around the world and back so she can be seen (publicity is its own reward) at the Toilet Bowl this weekend?
Really, Avweb?
All good questions and the best answer I can give is that it’s been kind of fun. Our story on her selling the 900 shot to the top of Google rankings and has been viewed millions of times. Sometimes aviation crosses over to the rest of the world and we like to mention that when it happens.
Well said, Russ. It’s aviation-related, and it’s a current event, and it’s interesting (the logistics of this kind of travel), and why not? If someone doesn’t want to read about Ms. Swift’s globetrotting, they can always just scroll to the next AV Web article.
Agreed. The logistics have been interesting, and fun (as Russ said). And loads of great PR for Avweb and aviation in general. Win-win.
Yes, Avweb, but what outfit is she wearing?
I am sure Russ wrote this as a joke even if it was said with a straight face.
Apparently Russ is quite the Swifty, otherwise how do we explain all the interest that AvWeb has taken in a pop singer?
Wow. Lots of grumpy old men on here this morning. I appreciate seeing the Vista Jet press release, I looked up and learned more about the Global 7500 biz jet, not that I’ll be renting one anytime soon. And might be tracking that jet in the future. Despite what the press release says, the aircraft is not parked at Narita until Saturday’s return flight, it has already moved on into China. Plus it has been an interesting exercise to calculate flight times for such a trip, and especially interesting to see how many websites get it wrong, including apparently even this press release. Oh well.
My bad. I assumed it would hang around but not at the international airport. Of course they want to keep that high value asset making money:) I’m sure Ms Swift will find a ride to Vegas:)
+1, Si Guy.
For anyone interested in tracking the plane on Sunday to see if she makes it, the registration is 9H-VONE
I thought it was OU-812 🙂
Haha! I see what you did there!🤣
You win the prize, Rick 🙂
Good find, thanks. Assuming she still uses that one to return. It has already moved on from Japan over to China, so Vista Jet could really rent her almost any of their fleet for the return.
If she cared for him, it’s registration would be N87TS. It’s the shirt number after all.
I suspect that Ms. Swift could choose from several purveyors of transcontinental air conveyance for her heralded trip from Japan to LV. What better promo? If the fortunate operator were clever, they’d provide her and her entourage a free flight in exchange for her expression of gratitude for their exemplary service. Tail number? Forget it. They will fly with call sign Kelce One.
I’m surprised that the charter company has publicized Ms Swift being on board. Most of the clients I have flown cherish and expect privacy as part of my company’s services. Especially since she has threatened to sue a certain individual who seems to like spending time tracking airplanes ADS-B data.
“You can’t have no idea how little I care”…Monte Walsh
Max S – then don’t read the article. I don’t care about certain AV Web articles, either, so I just don’t read them. I don’t have to tell the AV Web world that I don’t care about them. To push your point, who cares if you care or not?
Good one!
Max S
“You can’t have no idea how little I care”…Monte Walsh
Gee Max. If that were true you’d have stopped reading the article the minute you found out what it was about – and darn sure wouldn’t have bothered commenting. Face it – you care way more than you think you do.
Which is the whole point here. AvWeb is BROADcasting – although it is broadcasting with a narrowing factor applied. From a business perspective our friends who run this effort would be foolish to avoid this opportunity. Our society has an unhealthy focus on celebrity, and this is an all too rare opportunity for this publication to make some hay off of that. So you might want to back it down a little when complaining. We know you don’t like the singer chick. But you’re not her target audience. As a former professional musician I think her music is all that’s wrong with our world, but she’s commercially marketable to a shocking degree. So publishing everything about her is a journalistic no brainer.
All that being said….
If you don’t want someone tracking your every movement, give the money back and go get a “real” job. You’re a celebrity; that’s how it works.