Rory McIlroy became the sixth golfer to complete a career grand slam after winning the Masters in a tense playoff on Sunday — but he wasn’t the only person in Augusta under a lot of pressure.
During the weeklong tournament, the usually sleepy Augusta Regional Airport deals with nearly five times as many planes as usual.
On the day of McIlroy’s victory, flight tracker Radar Atlas used open-source data to track 229 private jets departing Augusta. Using data from ADS-B Exchange, their map shows an exodus of aircraft from the Georgian city.
Since last Monday, Radar Atlas has tracked over 2,100 private flights in and out of the Augusta area — including almost 500 on Wednesday.
That’s an average of some 300 per day. Lauren Smith, the airport’s assistant director of marketing and public relations, previously told Business Insider that the airport typically handles roughly 60 takeoffs and landings a day.
“It’s organized chaos to us,” she said during an interview ahead of last year’s tournament. Smith added that Monday is typically the busiest day as fans depart Augusta following the tournament’s conclusion.
On Monday, the airport posted on social media that passengers should give themselves three hours to make their flights, adding, “Mass exodus has begun!”
Augusta Regional Airport did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Last week, private jets arrived from as far afield as South Korea and Saudi Arabia — roughly 15-hour flights.
RadarAtlas tracked 1,215 unique private jets using a database compiled by Jack Sweeney, the aviation enthusiast who gained fame for his run-ins with Elon Musk.
Last week, planes belonging to Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, IBM, and McIlroy were among those to use Augusta Regional Airport.
During Masters week, the airport shuts down one of its runways to provide parking space for up to 300 planes. Around tournament week, the special ramp fee varies between $125 and $3,000 per day per arrival, depending on the size of the aircraft.
However, Augusta Regional Airport also has to deal with commercial flights. Airlines scheduled a record number for this year’s tournament.
Delta Air Lines operated up to 1,900 seats daily from nine airports and ran a major Masters-themed advertising program at Augusta Regional. American Airlines served Augusta from 10 cities.
The airport has to hire more staff for the week, while airlines also send more workers to Augusta. An assistant editor at Golf.com shared an image on X of a Delta gate agent wearing a green jacket like the one given to Masters champions.
Once all the private jets have left and airlines return to their regular schedules, airport workers have time to breathe — before they’re onto preparing for next year.
“As soon as the Masters ends, we are already setting goals and making initiatives and plans for the following Masters,” Smith told BI in 2024.
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