AUGUSTA, Ga. — With the golf world descending on Augusta National Golf Club this week for The Masters Tournament, Augusta and the surrounding area become the temporary capital for private jets.
Located roughly 12 miles from The Masters, Augusta Regional Airport is annually overloaded with an influx of private flights landing on runways that accommodate far less luxury travel during the other 51 weeks of the year.
“Golf is synonymous with private aviation,” Amalfi Jets founder and CEO Kolin Jones tells Front Office Sports. “A lot of business is done over the golf course. So, a lot of high net worth people in business really appreciate that, and a lot of people utilize it as a big networking tool.”
The demand around experiencing the first and most popular golf major of the year has seemingly maxed out the capacity of Augusta’s primary airport, resulting in “neighboring” airports looking to capitalize on The Masters, too.
Aiken Regional Airport, which sits across the border in South Carolina, about 26 miles from Augusta National, has an entire page on its website dedicated to Masters travel, complete with a warning about delays due to high reservations. Daily ramp fees for parking aircraft range from $50 for small planes to $2,000 for heavy jets.
Jones said that Amalfi Jets, which has recently skyrocketed in popularity due to viral videos on social media, received a high number of last-minute flight inquiries, and had been looking at flying some clients into Columbia (75 miles away) and even Charleston, S.C. (150 miles), which would require driving several hours to Augusta.
Booking at the last minute can also increase the price of a flight by up to 60%, according to Jones. That can add up fast when the typical cost of a round trip for a party of eight from Palm Beach, Fla., to Augusta (approximately a 90-minute flight) can be $60,000 under normal circumstances.
The Masters usually welcomes crowds of around 40,000 people each day during practice and tournament rounds, so the number of tourists is expected to continue increasing throughout the week.
