In addition to the emissions from the jets themselves, experts say the influx of aircraft is likely to have a downstream effect that will result in more emissions from congested streets.
The four airports in the Las Vegas area have around 500 parking spots for private jets, which officials say are fully booked ahead of the game Sunday.
“We expect around 3,500 additional takeoffs and landings and about 500 aircraft will be parked at local airports during Super Bowl week,” a Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson told The Hill in a statement.
“The expectation is that general aviation activity will be similar to what we saw during [the] Formula 1 [Grand Prix] back in November,” when more than 900 business jets touched down at three airports, Joe Rajchel, a spokesperson for the Clark County Department of Aviation, told The Hill in an email.
“We saw record numbers of private aviation with more than 1,000 movements between Henderson Executive Airport and North Las Vegas Airport.”
That’s more than last year’s Super Bowl in Glendale, Ariz., where The Arizona Republic estimated about 800 takeoffs and landings occurred.
Omar Ocampo, a researcher with the Institute for Policy Studies, noted that Las Vegas is already a major travel destination, both for tourists flying commercial and for wealthier individuals either chartering private flights or flying their own, which compounds the impact of the mass arrival of private jets in a way that was not present last year.
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
