Elon Musk Is So Busy His Private Jet Is Taking 13-Minute Flights

Musk’s plane has flown the most among some of the richest US billionaires, with the frequency ramping up after he added Twitter to his portfolio of companies.

By Marie Patino, Leonardo Nicoletti and Sophie Alexander

March 2, 2023, 5:00 AM EST

Elon Musk was already a busy billionaire. Then he bought Twitter — and quickly discovered he was working morning to night, seven days a week.

“I have too much work on my plate, that’s for sure,” he said.

Fortunately for Musk, he has a private jet to shuttle him between the headquarters of the five companies he oversees. And those trips have become more frequent in recent months.

A Bloomberg analysis of the use of primary private planes among some of the richest people in the world finds that Musk comes out on top. For example, his private jet took more than twice as many trips as Ellison’s in 2022.

“A stylized bar chart representing the number of flights taken by some billionaires’ private jets in the year 2022 — Musk comes out on top with 171 flights, followed by Zuckerberg - 115 - Brin and Page co-owned jet (85) and Ellison’s jet (82 flights)”

The roughly 2,112 metric tons of greenhouse gas emitted in 2022 from flight’s on Musk’s personal jet — not the Tesla or SpaceX corporate jets — is a tiny fraction of the 8.4 million metric tons that Tesla estimates its customers avoided emitting in 2021. But it’s more than 140 times the average American’s carbon footprint and, to make it up, a Tesla Model 3 would have to replace an average premium internal-combustion car for 7 million miles.

Tracking Musk’s jet also reveals the demands of running so many companies.

The billionaire oversees five companies — Tesla, SpaceX, Twitter, the Boring Company and Neuralink — that are spread out across Texas and California. The analysis of his jet’s flight patterns suggests at least part of the reason Musk spends so much time in the air is because he’s constantly shuttling from one HQ to another.

His numerous responsibilities — and the associated travel and other demands on his time — caused some investor angst last year. By the end of December, Tesla’s sharp share-price decline cost Musk his place as the world’s richest person, with his net worth tumbling by more than $200 billion from its peak. But he reclaimed that title this week, with Tesla surging ahead of the company’s March 1 investor day.

As for his private plane, while it does belong to Musk, it’s unclear whether the billionaire is always on it. The aircraft data doesn’t reveal who’s on the jet or the reason for a flight. But Musk’s near-constant tweeting sometimes provides confirmation that where Musk’s jet is, he is.

“A graphic representing all the flights Elon Musk’s private jet took in 2022. There are four small area charts next to one another. Each chart has two areas: one blue, representing the total number of flight taken by the jet per month, and another one red, representing the number of flights per month for a given destination. We represented the jet’s four most frequent destinations: Austin, where Tesla HQs are located, Hawthorne, where SpaceX HQs are, Brownsville tX, where Space X has a launch site, and Oakland CA, where Twitter HQs are.

The constant back-and-forth is consistent with Musk’s portrayed work ethic — he responds at all hours to individuals on Twitter requesting changes, was investigated for turning rooms at Twitter’s office into bedrooms and has said he only sleeps six hours a night.

“A graphic representing the number of miles traveled by Elon musk’s private jet over the year 2022, per month. Each month is represented by a bubble, and the size of the bubble varies depending on the number of mile traveled. The plane flew the most miles in July, and then in December, where it flew 55,000 miles.”

Musk, as anyone who follows him on Twitter likely knows, isn’t happy that his jet is traceable. Thanks to Federal Aviation Administration rules, the private jet movements of Musk and others are public information.

When 20-year-old Jack Sweeney started tracking and sharing updates about Musk’s jet movements on Twitter, the billionaire offered him $5,000 to quit it, but he refused. Musk said he wouldn’t kick him off the platform, but eventually did just that.

Musk, in justifying the choice, said Sweeney’s account “posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates.”

Some of the jet’s trips are very brief — in 2022, Musk’s jet took several trips that lasted 15 minutes or less.

Take for example a 13-minute flight in May from Hawthorne, California, home of SpaceX’s headquarters, to Los Angeles International Airport, less than six miles away. The jet then took off for Nice, France.

Then in December, Musk’s jet flew from Austin, Tesla’s new home, to Sacramento, where Twitter has a data center, only to turn around 24 minutes later and head back to the Texas capital.

“A map representing a roundtrip Elon Musk’s jet took between Austin and Sacramento. The trip from Austin (where Tesla HQ are located) to Sacramento was 2 and a half hours, and the trip back 3 hours. The plane stayed grounded at destination in Sacramento — where a Twitter data center is located — for 24 minutes before turning around.”

The year ahead promises to be another busy one for Musk. He’s racing to cut costs at Twitter to make the social media company profitable after saddling it with a $12.5 billion debt burden. And SpaceX is continuing to launch Starlink satellites, sending up 49 from California’s Vandenburg Space Force Base earlier this year.

“I work all day, then go home & play work simulator,” Musk tweeted on Jan. 27.

With assistance from: Eric Roston

Edited by: Brian Chappatta and Alex Tribou

Sources: Aircraft tail number data compiled by Bloomberg News from ADS-B Exchange. Geographic data from Natural Earth and Geofabrik.

Note: CO2 emissions estimates were calculated using the following formula: (liters of fuel per hour * total flight hours * 0.8) * 0.001 * CO2 coefficient, where CO2 coefficient is 3.15, per the IATA Carbon Offset Program.

Elon Musk Is So Busy His Private Jet Is Taking 13-Minute Flights

Musk’s plane has flown the most among some of the richest US billionaires, with the frequency ramping up after he added Twitter to his portfolio of companies.

Number of Flights for Billionaires’ Private Jets in 2022

A Year of Flights on Musk’s Private Jet

How Far His Jet Traveled

A Very Short Flight

A Longer Flight… With a Very Short Stay