Airplane charters for professional sports teams is a big business. We’re talking about a lot of people who have to be moved around pretty often. However, it’s also an industry that’s facing some challenges at the moment.
Historically NFL teams had charter agreements with airlines to get their teams around. However, lately we’ve seen several teams have their charter agreements cut, because airlines found they could utilize their planes more profitably in other ways. Travis covered this back in April, where we saw American cut their charter agreements with six NFL teams.
So in August at least one NFL team took the situation into their own hands. The New England Patriots bought two 767s, which they’ll use to get their players and staff around to games. We knew that these planes would have “premium seating,” though we didn’t know what exactly the inside of the planes would look like.
Well, the New England Patriots just uploaded a video to Facebook about their new “AirKraft” (get it?), which has some cool interior shots:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFOisqM-gLY
No, this isn’t quite as glamorous as the Crystal 777 that the Vancouver Canucks chartered for their trip to China. There’s no onboard bar, no onboard showers, and no flat beds. but it looks fairly comfortable, especially for the type of flights they’ll be taking.
The cabin seems to be split between a 2-3-2 configuration and a 2-2-2 configuration, with personal entertainment at each seat. The video explains that they tried to get the widest seats possible, and that much of the cabin has five inches more legroom than what you’d usually find in domestic first class.
(Tip of the hat to CR)
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-million-n95-masks-are-coming-from-chinaon-board-the-new-england-patriots-plane-11585821600
Private jet medical armada
Not sure how they came up with "a typical 767 has 250-260 seats..."
Better make sure those tires are inflated to the right pressure ;-)
@CR @pez There are 2 planes. Brady's and the other guys!
Do they have a Tom Brady suite up front that they're not showing in the video?
Mark Cuban's Dallas Mavs 757 is much nicer.
But then again, NBA players are on airplanes a LOT more than NFL players.
The limiting reagent would seem (based on the video) to be getting at least enough people into the aircraft. It'd be lovely to get flatbeds, but when you've got 53+ PUP players using the larger seats and probably about 80 (mostly normal sized) other employees on the plane you can't afford much more personal room than you see here. Domestic 1st + 5" should be about 44" pitch. 2-3-2 part of the plane should be...
The limiting reagent would seem (based on the video) to be getting at least enough people into the aircraft. It'd be lovely to get flatbeds, but when you've got 53+ PUP players using the larger seats and probably about 80 (mostly normal sized) other employees on the plane you can't afford much more personal room than you see here. Domestic 1st + 5" should be about 44" pitch. 2-3-2 part of the plane should be a normal person short to trascon acceptible 18" seat width and that should afford almost 21" of width in the 2-2-2 section. Road teams always arrive days in advance of a game and it's a week (or almost) after they get home before they play again, so I think they can fit in their beauty sleep during the week on the rare trascon. Or a player can just pay for a bigger seat in JetBlue Mint, Delta... I heard these guys are pretty well paid ;-)
I'm surprised they didn't do a partnership with the Red Sox and share the same two planes. Given the lack of overlapping schedules (really only September and potentially early October) you would think getting them involved to use the planes in the summer months would be more cost effective for both parties. Or, 4 767s split between all 4 Boston teams and have the entire fleet decked out in Boston themes....
Hi Lucky, I think the 2-3-2 was the “before” shot and the 2-2-2 is the “after” shot, so the layout is 2-2-2 everywhere.
Too bad it's not helping the Pats' season (2 -2) so far.
I hope they have enough air in the tires
@JK jealous ?? THey hate us cuz they ain't us !!
That looks pretty uncomfortable for guys that are near 300lbs, unless they get 2 seats.
Seems perfect to me - especially the wide seats the the 5” extra legroom over domestic first class. Beats the Hell out of charter flights - can’t imagine the big guys seated in domestic coach on a narrow body plane.
@ When I Travel The World - I'm surprised they didn't build a Residence ala Etihad style just for Brady.
The 2-2-2 reminds me of Ukraine Air 767 Biz Class for some reason. =P
I think they kept it modest, probably management up front with star players.
Others at the back.
I guess they are big guys so width of the seats is probably important.
I'm honestly pretty surprised that it's not nicer! I was imagining they'd at least have some lie-flat seats or something. Not easy to finish up a game at midnight on the west coast and red-eye back to Boston.
Just imagine if domestic travel was like this
2-2-2 on a 767? That’s spacious!!
Looks like cheaters DO prosper sometimes!