The WNBA Will Finally Use Charter Flights After Years of Forcing Players to Fly Commercial
The stars of the WNBA will finally be able to fly the friendly skies in privacy.
After teams had been forced to fly commercial since the league’s inception in 1996, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced on Tuesday, May 7, that “we intend to fund a full-time charter for this season.”
Engelbert noted the policy change would go into effect “as soon as we can get planes in places.” The WNBA regular season is set to tip off Tuesday, May 14.
The announcement comes after years of contention from teams and players who often had to deal with travel delays, layovers, uncomfortable seats and overwhelming attention in airports.
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“Been at the airport for 6 hours...flight cancelled ...woo chile this flying commercial is something else ??, “ two-time WNBA champion A’ja Wilson wrote via X during her rookie season with the Las Vegas Aces.
“Going on hour 7 in the airport,” the Aces’ Kayla McBride wrote via X in 2018. “Hoping we can get this resolved. Not trying to travel all night with a stop and have to play a big game tomorrow.”
In 2022, the New York Liberty were fined $500,000 for attempting to circumvent the rule by chartering flights to away games during the second half of the 2021 season.
The WNBA has estimated it would cost $25 million to use charter flights for the entire season. The league began instituting private charters for the playoffs and back-to-back games for teams last year.
“It’s something I’ve been working on since I came into the league,” Englebert told the Associated Press at the time. “It was never coming up with money for one year, but creating a sustainable model for the charter program to continue in perpetuity. Once you do it, you have to do it every year.”
The move has been viewed as a necessary one as the game of women’s basketball — and thus, the WNBA — continues to grow exponentially in popularity.
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The 2024-2025 season will see the debut of former Iowa star Caitlin Clark, who was drafted No. 1 overall by the Indiana Fever in April. It was deemed by many to be a security risk to have Clark, 22, traveling commercially all season.
Additionally, Brittney Griner is back for her 11th season with the Phoenix Mercury. In December 2022, Griner, 33, was released after spending 10 months in a Russian prison on drug possession charges.
When Griner made her triumphant return last season, she was confronted by a YouTube personality named Alex Stein who, according to a police report, “made some inappropriate comments” to Griner while she and the Mercury were traveling through Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.
"Our league is growing, the demand for women's basketball is growing," Seattle Storm star and president of the WNBA Players’ Association Nneka Ogwumike said of the charter flight announcement. "That means more eyes on us, which is what we want, but that means more protection from the organization that we play for, the whole W that we play for.”
