As the longest government shutdown in U.S. history continues, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered flight reductions at 40 major airports, including Atlanta, New York, Boston, and Los Angeles.
The move begins with affecting 4% of flights, with plans to ramp up to impact 1 in 10 flights at those airports, disrupting travel plans for thousands of Americans every day.
But Patriotic Millionaires, a group of high-net-worth individuals who advocate for more progressive taxes in order to close the wealth gap, is suggesting an alternative that it says would spare commercial airline passengers and still offer relief for air traffic controllers: Just cancel all private flights.
Private jets specifically—which are more expensive and hold more passengers than small private planes—make up one out of every six flights handled by the FAA, according to the Institute for Policy Studies.
Private jet use has also been soaring in recent years, and the U.S. is responsible for the most private flights.
“If you need a 10% reduction [in flights], you can get 100% of your reduction from the private planes. You do not need to affect commercial flights, period,” says Erica Payne, president and founder of Patriotic Millionaires.
To Payne, the FAA is “choosing to have everyone suffer rather than grounding planes that are destroying the planet and flying one or two people at a time in the lap of luxury.”
Some private flights may well end up being part of those 4% to 10% reductions happening at major hubs. But Patriotic Millionaires is suggesting that the FAA target private flights specifically, sparing commercial passengers.
Private jets and public resources
Everyone who flies pays toward the taxes that help fund the FAA, which then pays the salaries of its employees, including air traffic controllers. During the government shutdown, air traffic controllers are considered essential workers, and required to keep doing their jobs without pay.
That reality is now straining air traffic controllers, many of whom work mandatory overtime six days a week, and so aren’t able to take on other jobs. They’ve been increasingly taking six days.
Already, at least 3.4 million travelers have been affected by staffing shortages, according to the industry group Airlines for America.
For the average airline passenger, a 7.5% tax on their ticket price, plus a charge that can go up to $4.50, goes toward the FAA’s Airport and Airway Trust Fund. Private jet flyers contribute just 2% of the taxes that make up that fund.
While some private flights take off from major airport hubs, there are also airports that only serve private air travel, like Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles, one of the country’s busiest aviation hubs.
That airport is not on the FAA’s list of affected high traffic airports.
In some cases, airports that mainly serve private jets have also collected taxpayer dollars, like the Napa Valley Airport in California, which collected $6.3 million over two years.
“Private jet travelers have already gotten away with having the American taxpayers pick up their jet setting,” Payne says. “We are funding the jet-setting pollution-causing air travel of the richest people in the country.”
“Now we’re being asked to suffer cancellations and delays, when we’ve already been picking up their transportation costs for decades,” she continues. “And there’s an easy way out of this. Patriotic Millionaires are saying: shut down private air travel during the government shutdown, and use that extra capacity.”
Fast Company reached out to the FAA for comment. An automatic reply said the agency is not responding to routine press requests during the shutdown.
A highlight on wealth inequality
To Payne, this move to affect commercial flights while seemingly ignoring private jet travel is another example of the way issues around wealth inequality are being highlighted across the country.
“The transportation secretary stands up there and says 1 out of every 10 people in America flying somewhere are going to suffer a delay or cancellation, while wealthy people are not even asked to park their planes and fly first class for a few days,” Payne says.
President Trump’s recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act also gives more than $1 trillion in tax cuts to the country’s top 1%.
Patriotic Millionaires’s suggestion to the FAA also comes the same week that Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race. Mamdani ran on taxing the wealthy in order to fund programs like free childcare and buses. Billionaires spent millions of dollars opposing his campaign.
Patriotic Millionaires says it is reaching out to all members of the House and Senate committees to suggest they ground private planes rather than affect commercial flights. The group is also creating a series of social media posts to highlight the idea, including ones that feature Patriotic Millionaires member Abigail Disney.
“This needs to become an issue,” Payne says. “We plan to do everything in our power to make it an issue.”