S&P 500 Companies Spend $65M on Executives’ Personal Flights

Regardless of growing consideration on company accountability and financial accountability, one govt indulgence has taken off with renewed vigor in recent times: personal travel aboard the corporate jet.

In 2022, S&P 500 corporations collectively disbursed a staggering $65 million for the perk — a considerable 50% leap in comparison with the pre-pandemic period three years earlier than, The Wall Street Journal reported.

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Government information agency Equilar pinpointed a 14% surge within the variety of corporations embracing private journey on firm jets since 2019, boosting the tally to 216 in 2022, with the variety of executives benefiting from the luxurious hovering by 25% to 427.

Whereas advocates of the perk contend flying private could be safer and extra environment friendly for sure executives, critics are fast to level out the symbolic extra it represents, elevating issues in regards to the eagerness of company boards to please their C-suite executives on the expense of shareholder pursuits.

In 2019, chief executives from the Enterprise Roundtable, together with the leaders of Apple and JPMorgan Chase, argued that shareholder worth is not “the aim of a company” and as a substitute emphasised the significance of different elements akin to investing in staff, The New York Times reported.

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Meta Platforms is likely one of the greatest spenders on non-public worker journey; the corporate funneled $6.6 million into private flights for CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his former second-in-command, Sheryl Sandberg, in 2022 — up 55% over 2019, per WSJ.

And the tech large’s not alone. On line casino firm Las Vegas Sands spent in extra of $3.2 million on 4 executives’ private flights, greater than twice its annual spend in any yr since 2015, and power conglomerate Exelon spent 3 times as a lot on the luxurious because it did in 2019, based on the outlet.