At the Last Minute, Government Shutdown Flight Restrictions Came for the Private Jets

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While Senate Democrats voiced reopening the government Monday evening, helping pass a budget that was criticized for “making the largest Medicaid cut in American history to pay for the largest billionaire tax break in American history,” these billionaires’ preferred means of travel was in the midst of a major setback: They were reportedly blocked at 12 major airports.

On Sunday, Ed Bolen, president and CEO of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), a lobbying group for private jet businesses, said in his organization’s press release that along with the previously announced flight restrictions at 40 U.S. airports, there were additional restrictions that “will effectively prohibit business aviation operations at 12 of those airports, disproportionately impacting general aviation, an industry that creates more than 1 million jobs, generates $340 billion in economic impact and supports humanitarian flights every day.”

French economist Thomas Piketty views the use of private jets a little differently, claiming that they should be banned as a clear punishment on the rich for their disproportionate contributions to climate change, and that such a ban would help the poor feel involved. “We have to try to do everything we can to convince these groups that the people at the top are paying their fair share. You have to start right at the top; [with] People who may be taking a private plane.”

Earlier Monday, President Donald Trump used a Truth Social post to attack air traffic controllers who stayed home, or sought other work, while their jobs went unpaid amid the government shutdown. He said their salaries could be “deducted” and that anyone who wanted to take leave in the future should resign, and be “quickly replaced by true patriots, who will do a better job in the brand new equipment, the best in the world, which we are in the process of ordering.”

The threat of a temporary crackdown on private jet travel was still in place as of Monday night, when the Senate’s passage of the bill sent it to the House floor. Not all House members were in Washington, D.C., at the time, and House Speaker Mike Johnson said around the time the Senate bill passed that they had 36 hours to return.

According to the NBAA, House members with access to private planes will not be able to land at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, because it is on a list of 12 private jets currently grounded. The rest are: