Most lists of athletes with private jets repeat the same numbers, and most of those numbers are wrong. This one ranks by what can actually be verified: the airframe, the tail number, and the registry entry behind it.
The short answer is that fewer athletes own a jet than the internet claims. Of the 20 names below, several charter, one holds a fractional share, one flies a company aircraft, and at least one has spent years denying he owns anything at all.
The genuine owners are led by Michael Jordan, whose Gulfstream G650ER is registered N236MJ to MJ Air LLC and is the most capable aircraft on this list. Cristiano Ronaldo’s Gulfstream G650 is the most expensive.
Plenty of golfers fly private, as do footballers. Racing pays for a lot of business jets too, whether the series is Formula 1 or NASCAR.
How this list was checked
Every US-registered aircraft here was looked up in the FAA’s releasable aircraft database, which lists the tail number, airframe year, serial number and registrant. Aircraft on foreign registers, and aircraft flown under charter, cannot be confirmed that way, so those entries say what is reported rather than what is proven. Where a widely repeated purchase price has no support, this article says so instead of repeating it.
| # | Athlete | Aircraft | Arrangement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Jordan | Gulfstream G650ER (N236MJ) | Owns |
| 2 | Lionel Messi | Gulfstream V (LV-IRQ) | Owns |
| 3 | David Beckham | Bombardier Challenger 350 | Reported, unconfirmed |
| 4 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Gulfstream G650 | Owns |
| 5 | Tiger Woods | Gulfstream G550 (N517TW) | Owns |
| 6 | Michael Schumacher | Dassault Falcon 2000EX (M-IKEL) | Owned, sold 2019 |
| 7 | Phil Mickelson | Gulfstream V (N800PM) | Owned, sold 2020 |
| 8 | Magic Johnson | Gulfstream III (N32MJ) | Owns |
| 9 | Alex Rodriguez | Gulfstream IV | Reported |
| 10 | Floyd Mayweather | Gulfstream IV (N305DG) | Owns |
| 11 | Lewis Hamilton | Bombardier Challenger 605 (G-LCDH) | Owned, sold 2019 |
| 12 | LeBron James | None | Charters, NetJets |
| 13 | Conor McGregor | Various, incl. Embraer Lineage 1000 | Charters |
| 14 | Roger Federer | Bombardier Challenger 350 | NetJets fractional |
| 15 | Sergio Garcia | Dassault Falcon 7X (N901SG) | Owns |
| 16 | Tracy McGrady | Dassault Falcon 2000 | Owned, 2005 to 2006 |
| 17 | Tom Brady | Gulfstream G550 | Owns |
| 18 | Triple H | Bombardier Global 5000 | Company aircraft |
| 19 | Manny Pacquiao | Bell 206 JetRanger | Owns |
| 20 | Neymar | Dassault Falcon 900LX | Owns |
1. Michael Jordan: Gulfstream G650ER
Jordan flew a Gulfstream G550 in Carolina blue for close to two decades, and it is the aircraft most people picture when they think of his jet. He replaced it in 2024.
The current aircraft is a Gulfstream G650ER, a 2024 airframe with serial number 6579, registered N236MJ to MJ Air LLC. The FAA issued the certificate on October 1, 2024.
That tail number is the reason his jet is recognizable at any FBO in the country. The 23 is his jersey number, the 6 is his NBA championship count, and MJ is obvious.
The G650ER is the long-range version of Gulfstream’s flagship, good for 7,500 nautical miles and a top speed of Mach 0.925. New examples list at roughly $70 million, and Jordan’s reported custom paint scheme added about $500,000 on top.
The old G550 did not disappear. It was re-registered N239MJ and, as of the FAA’s current release, sits with an unrelated holding company after changing hands again in July 2026.
2. Lionel Messi: Gulfstream V
Messi bought a Gulfstream V in 2018 for a reported $15 million. It carries the Argentine registration LV-IRQ, serial number 699, and is held through Flyzar S.A.
The aircraft is personalized in the way footballers’ jets usually are. His shirt number and the names of his wife and three sons are painted on the airstair, so the first thing anyone boarding sees is his family.
The Gulfstream V carries up to 16 passengers, cruises at Mach 0.885 and covers 6,500 nautical miles, which is enough to reach Buenos Aires from Europe without stopping. For a player who spent his career on the wrong side of the Atlantic from his family, that range is the whole point.
Before the Gulfstream he flew an Embraer Legacy 650 with a number 10 on the tail, sold around the time he moved up to the larger aircraft.
3. David Beckham: Bombardier Challenger 350
Beckham is the first entry on this list where the ownership claim does not hold up cleanly. He is widely reported to have paid about $26.6 million for a Bombardier Challenger 350, with the aircraft said to be stored in California.
No registration has ever been published to support that, and the purchase has not been confirmed. What is well documented is that he and his family charter often, and for large groups they charter something bigger.
The Challenger 350 itself is a genuinely good super-midsize jet: 3,200 nautical miles of range, a flat-floor cabin and up to 10 seats. It is the aircraft a lot of people in his bracket end up in, which is part of why the claim is plausible even though it is unproven.
Beckham has also chartered for other people’s benefit, which is more unusual. Whole squads travelling together is normally a job for a team aircraft, not a personal one.
4. Cristiano Ronaldo: Gulfstream G650
Ronaldo owns the most expensive aircraft on this list. He took on a Gulfstream G650 in 2023 at a reported cost of around $73 million, and added a Bombardier Global Express XRS, registered LX-GOL in Luxembourg, in December 2024.
The jet in the photograph above is the aircraft he flew before that: a Gulfstream G200 registered EC-KBC, bought in 2015 and operated by TAG Aviation. He sold it in 2023 for a reported $21 million.
That matters because the G200 is routinely described online as a $60 million jet that seats 18. It is a midsize aircraft that seats up to 10, and it never cost anything close to that.
The G650 is a different class entirely, with 7,000 nautical miles of range and a Mach 0.925 top speed. Moving to Saudi Arabia in 2023 made that range useful rather than decorative, and his fleet has grown since.
Ronaldo also has an airport named after him on Madeira, the Portuguese island where he grew up. In the video below his jet lands at Cristiano Ronaldo International Airport:
5. Tiger Woods: Gulfstream G550
Woods flies a Gulfstream G550 registered N517TW, a 2008 airframe with serial number 5209, held by GTW Corporation. The FAA certificate dates to May 2009.
The aircraft had a previous life in the NetJets fleet as N517QS, which is a common route to ownership: buy an ex-fractional airframe with known maintenance history rather than order new.
The G550 carries up to 19 passengers, ranges 6,750 nautical miles and tops out at 51,000 feet, above most weather and most other traffic. A 2008 example is worth somewhere between $12 million and $18 million in the 2026 market, not the $53 million figure that circulates.
Woods has 15 major championships and 82 PGA Tour wins, and his schedule since the 2021 car crash has been shaped around his body rather than the calendar. The jet is how he keeps a limited schedule workable.
6. Michael Schumacher: Dassault Falcon 2000EX
Schumacher’s aircraft was a Dassault Falcon 2000EX registered M-IKEL on the Isle of Man, a silver eight-seat trijet. At the height of his Ferrari years it logged 300 to 400 hours annually.
It is often listed as a Falcon 200 bought for $22 million, which conflates two unrelated Dassault aircraft. The Falcon 200 is a 1980s twinjet worth a small fraction of that.
The third engine was not vanity. A trijet can fly steep approaches into short, constrained airports like Sion in the Swiss Alps, and it is not bound by the ETOPS rules that limit how far a twin may stray from a diversion airport over water.
Schumacher won 91 Grand Prix and seven world titles. The Falcon was sold in 2019, six years after his skiing accident, and Dassault trijets remain unusually popular among Formula 1 drivers.
7. Phil Mickelson: Gulfstream V
Mickelson owned a Gulfstream V registered N800PM, serial number 599, for roughly two decades. He is reported to have paid around $40 million for it, not the $60 million usually quoted.
He let it go in October 2020, when the aircraft was re-registered to a Dallas holding company. Mickelson moved to VistaJet charter instead of buying a replacement.
The N800PM registration is now sitting unused. In the FAA’s current release it appears as a reserved N-number held by a number broker, which is what happens when a personalized tail is retired from an airframe.
The Gulfstream V he flew seats up to 16, ranges 6,500 nautical miles and runs on a pair of Rolls-Royce BR710 engines. For a golfer playing tournaments on two continents, it was more aircraft than most peers needed.
8. Magic Johnson: Gulfstream III
Johnson’s Gulfstream III is the oldest aircraft on this list by a wide margin. The FAA lists N32MJ as a 1982 airframe, serial number 460, and he acquired it in 2005.
The tail number pairs his Lakers number 32 with his initials. The jet had ten registrations and a dozen owners before he bought it, which is normal for a 40-year-old business jet.
Johnson has said some of his biggest deals were negotiated in the air, including the sale of his minority Lakers stake in 2010. The aircraft carries 12 passengers and ranges about 4,100 nautical miles.
In 2020 he had the livery redone as a tribute after the Lakers and the Dodgers both won championships. The jet flies rarely now, which is unsurprising for an airframe of its age.
9. Alex Rodriguez: Gulfstream IV
Rodriguez is reported to have bought a Gulfstream IV around 2020, and it is the aircraft usually attached to his name. No registration linking it to him has been published.
The famous runway incident is frequently misattributed to it. In October 2006 a Gulfstream II carrying Rodriguez and six other people overran the runway at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California.
The aircraft was stopped by an engineered materials arresting system, a bed of crushable concrete blocks laid beyond the runway end that collapses under the wheels and slows an aircraft down. Nobody aboard was hurt, and Rodriguez was a passenger rather than the owner.
The Gulfstream IV seats up to 19, not the 22 often quoted, and ranges 4,220 nautical miles. It is a 1980s and 1990s design that trades for single-digit millions today.
10. Floyd Mayweather: Gulfstream IV
Mayweather is the clearest example of how inflated these figures get. He is routinely credited with two jets worth $40 million each, and with a $50 million to $65 million Gulfstream G650 bought in 2014.
No Mayweather-linked entity has ever appeared on a G650 registration. What the registry does show is a Gulfstream IV, N305DG, a 1990 airframe with serial number 1139, registered to a Mayweather-linked company in July 2024 and nicknamed Air Mayweather 2.
A 2026 court filing put that aircraft at about $6.5 million. He also held a 1994 Gulfstream IV-SP, N151SD, which flew 38 times for 102 hours in 2024 before leaving his ownership.
None of that makes him a modest flyer. It does mean the real story is two decades-old Gulfstreams, not a pair of new flagships.
Why the prices are almost always wrong
Celebrity jet prices get quoted at new-aircraft list value even when the airframe is 30 years old. A Gulfstream III that cost $18 million new in 1982 trades for around $1 million today, and a 1990 Gulfstream IV for a few million. When a list says an athlete owns a $40 million jet, check the year the aircraft was built before believing it.
11. Lewis Hamilton: Bombardier Challenger 605
Hamilton bought a cherry-red Bombardier Challenger 605 in 2013, registered G-LCDH, serial number 5904. The reported price was £16.5 million, about $27 million at the time.
It was imported through an Isle of Man structure that later surfaced in the Paradise Papers, which turned the aircraft into a tax story as much as an aviation one.
He sold it in 2019 on environmental grounds, and it now flies on charter as G-RANE. The Challenger 605 carries up to 12 passengers, ranges 4,045 nautical miles and cruises at 470 knots (541 mph).
Hamilton turned 40 in January 2025 and moved to Ferrari for the 2025 season. He has flown commercially and chartered since selling.
12. LeBron James: No Private Jet
LeBron James does not own a private jet. He has said so publicly more than once, and no registration has ever tied an aircraft to him.
The Gulfstream G280 in the photograph is the aircraft the internet has attached to his name for years, usually with a $23 million price tag. It is a real aircraft type and a good one, but it is not his.
What he actually uses is charter. He confirmed a NetJets relationship back in 2010, and fractional access to Gulfstream-class aircraft covers his personal travel without the cost of owning an airframe outright.
For Lakers road games he flies on the team aircraft, one of the NBA’s dedicated Boeing 757-200s operated by Delta and configured with 72 seats instead of the usual 180-odd. The G280 story is the most persistent myth in athlete aviation.
13. Conor McGregor: Chartered, Not Owned
McGregor is photographed on more private jets than almost anyone on this list, and he owns none of them. Every aircraft linked to him is a charter.
He flew a Riga-operated Embraer Lineage 1000 from Dublin to Dubai in 2025, a Gulfstream G550 into Ireland in 2022, and a Bombardier Global Express XRS to Nice at a reported €8,900 per hour.
The claim that his jet seats 32 people comes from a single stunt. In August 2017 he flew to Las Vegas for the Mayweather fight aboard a 32-seat VIP airliner wrapped in his own face and the words Notorious Airways.
That aircraft was a one-off promotional charter and the operator was never confirmed. Chartering at his volume is not cheap, but it is a different thing from ownership.
14. Roger Federer: NetJets Fractional Share
Federer has been a NetJets customer and brand ambassador since 2004, which is a fractional arrangement rather than outright ownership. He buys hours in a shared fleet.
The aircraft usually associated with him is a Bombardier Challenger 350, reported as HB-JTI on the Swiss register. The $54 million purchase figure attached to his name does not describe anything he bought.
Fractional ownership is the arrangement that makes the most sense for a tennis player. The tour moves between continents on short notice, and a share buys guaranteed availability without the fixed cost of a crew and a hangar.
Forbes credited Federer with passing $1 billion in career earnings, the first tennis player to do it. Rafael Nadal took the opposite route and bought a small jet outright.
15. Sergio Garcia: Dassault Falcon 7X
Garcia has flown three aircraft under the same tail number, which is why the model attached to his name keeps changing. He has carried N901SG since his Gulfstream V days.
The Hawker 850XP in the photograph is the aircraft he flew for years. It seats eight, cruises at close to 450 knots and never cost him a missed tournament, which is the metric he judged it by.
He then upgraded to a Hawker 4000, taking ceremonial delivery of the first in class at the EBACE show in Geneva. That aircraft was valued at about $22.9 million.
In the FAA’s current release, N901SG sits on a 2008 Dassault Falcon 7X, serial number 38, held through a trustee arrangement. The 7X is a three-engine long-range jet, a substantial step up again from the Hawker.
16. Tracy McGrady: Dassault Falcon 2000
McGrady was the first NBA player to own a private jet, which makes him more historically important here than his one season with the Spurs suggests. He bought a Dassault Falcon 2000 in 2005 for about $19 million.
The reason was not luxury. He had developed serious anxiety about commercial flying after September 11, and he did not board an airliner again until Team USA duty forced him to.
The aircraft was an 11-seat Falcon 2000 in white with T1 MAC painted on the fuselage. His seat was the first on the right, with an armrest that controlled the sound system, the DVD player and the cabin air conditioning.
His business manager argued the jet paid for itself through depreciation and leasing it out. Reporting in September 2006 indicates McGrady gave the aircraft up little more than a year after buying it, and he retired from the NBA in 2013.
17. Tom Brady: Gulfstream G550
Brady flies a Gulfstream G550 reported at around $20 million, seen in footage he posted himself in late 2024. Neither the registration nor the owning entity has been made public.
The jet most often written about is a different one. In 2008 the Boston Globe reported that Gisele Bundchen had ordered a roughly $50 million G550 as a gift, with a delivery slot around 2010.
That aircraft was never independently confirmed as delivered, and the couple divorced in 2022. The ownership question the old version of this article raised was never really answered.
During his Patriots years Brady travelled on the team’s Boeing 767-300ER, N36NE, one of two ex-American Airlines airframes the Kraft family bought in 2017 for about $10 million combined. His flying now is mostly Fox Sports broadcast travel.
18. Triple H: Bombardier Global 5000
The Global 5000 associated with Triple H is a company aircraft, not a personal one. It belongs to WWE and is used by executives and talent travelling to major shows.
The claim that Paul Levesque bought it himself in 2007 for $27.5 million traces back to a single aggregator post and has never been supported by a registration.
The aircraft is a 2008 Global 5000 seating up to 13. WWE put it through a full refurbishment at Bombardier’s Tucson facility in December 2023, adding new seating, a Rockwell Collins entertainment system and Starlink connectivity.
In July 2026 the company listed it for sale at $10.495 million through Hagerty Jet Group, based at White Plains. That asking price is a useful reality check on the $27.5 million purchase claim.
19. Manny Pacquiao: Bell 206 JetRanger
Pacquiao is the only entry here who bought a helicopter rather than a jet, and the only one who bought it for constituency work. He picked up a second-hand five-seat Bell 206 JetRanger in 2012.
The reported price was about 18 million Philippine pesos, roughly $430,000 at the exchange rate of the time. That is a rounding error against every other aircraft on this list.
He was a congressman for Sarangani when he bought it, and used it to reach parts of the province that are difficult to get to by road. A light single-engine helicopter is the right tool for that job in a way a business jet never would be.
Pacquiao served in the Philippine Senate until 2022, finished third in that year’s presidential election, and placed 18th in the 2025 Senate race. He returned to boxing against Mario Barrios in July 2025, which is not the trajectory of most people who own aircraft.
20. Neymar: Dassault Falcon 900LX
Neymar has had the most eventful private aviation history of any footballer. His first aircraft, an Embraer Legacy 100, was repossessed by Brazilian authorities in 2016 during a tax enforcement action over roughly £33 million.
The Cessna Citation Sovereign in the photograph is part of the fleet he built afterwards, alongside an Embraer Phenom 100 for short domestic legs. The Sovereign carries up to 12 passengers and ranges about 3,000 nautical miles.
His main aircraft now is a Dassault Falcon 900LX worth about $50 million, finished in black and gold Batman livery. He bought it in 2024 and 2025 as part of a matching set with an Airbus H145 helicopter and a replica of the Tumbler from The Dark Knight.
The whole collection was reported at around $65 million. The Falcon 900LX is another trijet, which gives it the overwater routing freedom a twin does not have on the São Paulo to Europe run that his season depends on.
The Athletes People Search For Who Are Not On This List
Four names come up constantly in searches about athletes with private jets, and none of them owns one outright. They are worth covering because the answers are counterintuitive.
Travis Kelce owns no aircraft. The Pilatus PC-24 registered N620JK, a 2021 airframe with serial number 249, belongs to Kelce Air LLC and is linked to his brother Jason, not to him. The full registry trail is worth reading.
Patrick Mahomes holds a fractional share with Airshare and serves as their brand ambassador. He flies a Challenger 350 from their fleet rather than an aircraft of his own.
Max Verstappen does own a jet, a Dassault Falcon 8X registered PH-UTL that he took on in February 2025. It ranges 6,450 nautical miles and tops out at Mach 0.90, which makes it faster and longer-legged than anything an athlete outside Formula 1 flies.
Rafael Nadal bought a Cessna Citation CJ2+ in 2010 for a reported $5 million. It is a light jet seating eight, and it is the most modest aircraft owned by any athlete of his stature.
The cheapest way to look like you own a jet
A fractional share buys guaranteed access to an aircraft within a few hours’ notice for a fraction of the cost of ownership, and the aircraft that turns up carries the fleet operator’s registration rather than yours. That is why Roger Federer, Patrick Mahomes and LeBron James all appear in photographs on business jets while owning none. Flight trackers cannot tell the difference from the ramp, and neither can most lists.
What Athletes Actually Fly, and Why
A pattern runs through the verified entries on this list. Athletes buy range when their family lives on a different continent from their employer, and they buy speed almost never.
Messi’s Gulfstream V and Ronaldo’s G650 exist because Buenos Aires and Madeira are a long way from Barcelona and Riyadh. Pacquiao’s helicopter exists because Sarangani has bad roads.
The other pattern is age. Jordan’s G650ER and Verstappen’s Falcon 8X are current-production flagships, but Magic Johnson’s Gulfstream III is a 1982 airframe and Mayweather’s Gulfstream IV dates to 1990.
An older large-cabin jet delivers most of the cabin and most of the range for a small fraction of the price. That gap between what these aircraft cost and what the internet says they cost is the single biggest source of error in every list like this one.
FAQ
Sources and references used for research and fact-checking.
- Federal Aviation Administration, Aircraft Registry Inquiry and releasable aircraft database
- Simple Flying, A Look At Magic Johnson's Gulfstream III
- Simple Flying, The NBA Players With Private Jets
- Simple Flying, A Closer Look At Tracy McGrady's Dassault Falcon 2000
- Simple Flying, What Type Of Private Jet Does David Beckham Fly?
- Simple Flying, What Private Jet Does Patrick Mahomes Fly On?
- Business Jet Traveler, Patrick Mahomes Scores Many Touchdowns with Airshare
- Business Jet Traveler, Sergio Garcia
- Textron Aviation, Seven-Time PGA Event Champion Sergio Garcia to Take Ceremonial Delivery of First-In-Class Hawker 4000 at EBACE
- Wrestling-Online, WWE selling its corporate Bombardier Global 5000 jet
- AviationPros, Yankee Alex Rodriguez's Jet Goes off Runway
- PhilBoxing, Pacquiao's New Toy: The Bell 206 5-Seater Helicopter
- Rappler, Pacquiao family loses big in Senate, party-list race
- Yahoo Sports, Manny Pacquiao concedes after 18th-place finish in Philippine Senatorial election; ring return imminent
- Business Insider, The Richest Sports Stars' Private Jets, From Ronaldo to Michael Jordan
- Gulfstream Aerospace, Gulfstream G650ER specifications
- Dassault Aviation, Falcon 8X specifications
- Bombardier, Global 5000 specifications
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Articles credited to the AeroCorner Editorial Team are created or maintained by multiple aviation contributors working under a shared editorial framework. Content is researched using authoritative aviation sources and reviewed to ensure clarity, technical accuracy, and consistency across AeroCorner.