I didn’t think I’d ever be writing a blog post about Taylor Swift. I was recently asked by a Swiftie who knows my love of aviation and solving weird problems if Taylor Swift can make it from her concert in Tokyo back to Las Vegas to cheer on Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs in the Super Bowl.
I am going to have to make some assumptions in order to make this math possible; those will be noted below.
So, here we go. This will be fun.
The Problem
Taylor is still on her record-smashing ‘Eras’ world tour. She has a show at the Tokyo Dome on Saturday, February 10th at 6:00pm Tokyo time (1:00am Las Vegas time). Her show runs approximately 3 hours and 15 minutes. I will assume that the show starts on time at 6:00pm and lasts for 3 hours and 15 minutes.
Current Time Tracker: 9:15pm JST / 4:15am PST (37 hours to kickoff)
Step 1: Tokyo Dome to Airport
Tokyo has 2 main airports- Haneda and Narita. Narita is approximately 1 hour from the Tokyo Dome while Haneda is much closer at 36 minutes.
I am going to assume that she will use Haneda airport for this flight and increasing the travel time to 45 minutes for simplicity of math.
She’ll be flying private, so she won’t have to go through security or any of the other airport niceties that us plebians deal with every time we fly. Her pilots should have her plane fueled up, walk around done, pre-flight checks done, navigation system programmed, and ready to push and start when she arrives. That being said, it’s still going to take some time to load persons and baggage, get final clearances and to taxi, so I’m going to use 11:30pm as a departure time.
Current Time Tracker: 11:30pm JST / 6:30am PST (35 hours to kickoff)
Step 2: Narita Airport to Harry Reid Airport
The Airplanes
Taylor has 2 airplanes: A Dassault Falcon 7X and a Dassault Falcon 900. Both aircraft are trijets, meaning they have three engines instead of the usual two found on private jets.
The Falcon 900 has a range of 4,000 nautical miles (nm) with a cruise speed of Mach 0.85 (510kts (knots)/590mph). On the other hand, the 7X has a range of 5,950nm and a cruise speed of Mach 0.8 (459kts/528mph).
NOTE: Taylor Swift sold her Falcon 900 on January 30th, 2024- after I started writing this post. She wasn’t going to be able to use it here anyway so I’m going to keep it in for fun.
The Route
There are a few routes that airplanes can take between Haneda International Airport (ICAO code: RJTT) and Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas (ICAO code: KLAS). I’m going to assume they use the following route with a distance of 4,972nm.
NOTE: RJOO and KPHX are shown on the map as they are alternate airports and not included in the 4,972nm.
Given that distance, Taylor will have to use her Falcon 7X, allowing her to cruise at Mach 0.8. That means the trip will take approximately 10 hours and 25 minutes, depending on winds and any required changes in routing and required holds over KLAS. I’m going to say 11 hours travel time to be safe.
Current Time Tracker: 5:30pm PST (24 hours to kickoff)
Step 3: On the Ground at Harry Ried
The biggest problem of the trip so far is something we have all dealt with before- parking. In her case, parking for her Falcon 7X- not like the Dodge Durangos and Buick LaCrosses (or full-size pickups) that you and I deal with parking in metro areas. There are approximately 475 parking spaces in all of the Las Vegas-area airports. As far as I can find, all 475 of those spots are already booked for the weekend. It is possible that Taylor has already booked one of these 475 spots, in which case this section can be disregarded.
She will also need a landing slot. The NFL works closely with the FAA and the local airports, so they almost certainly have the pull to guarantee her a place to land, but possibly not a place to park. I am going to assume that she will land at Harry Ried International Airport as it is the main airport for Las Vegas and is closest to Allegiant Stadium.
LIV Golf has a Golf Tournament at the Las Vegas Country Club that concludes on Saturday, so it is possible that some of the spots could become available if there are golfers in attendance who aren’t football fans and would rather get out of town.
If she can’t find a parking spot (who among us hasn’t been in that situation), she could do a ‘drop-and-go’ flight, which is exactly what it sounds like. Taylor and her entourage would be ‘dropped’ at Harry Ried Airport and her pilots and plane would ‘go’ and park somewhere else outside of the Las Vegas area.
I’m going to assume that it will take an hour on the ground at Harry Ried.
Current Time Tracker: 6:30pm PST (23 hours to kickoff)
Step 4: Harry Ried to Allegiant Stadium
Taylor obviously won’t be going straight to Allegiant Stadium if she arrives 23 hours before kickoff, but for posterity, it should take 10 minutes on a normal day to get from Harry Ried to Allegiant Stadium. I’ll estimate 30 minutes here to account for extra activity in preparation for the Super Bowl.
Final Time Tracker: 7:00pm PST (22.5 hours to kickoff)
Conclusion
So, yes. Thanks to the magic of the International Date Line, Taylor Swift will make it to Las Vegas with plenty of time for a good night’s rest before the big game and have plenty of energy to celebrate the Chiefs’ (hopeful) win afterward.
To the person who asked- thanks for the question, that was a lot of fun to figure out. If you have more weird aviation or travel problems you want me to tackle, contact me!