BANGOR, Maine — Spotify's top artist of 2023 and international pop sensation Taylor Swift appears to have stopped in Maine's Queen City on Thursday in her return to the U.S. after a trip to London and before taking off again to fly to Kansas City.
Taylor Swift's Jets, an Instagram account dedicated to tracking the superstar's two private jets, reported that one of her jets landed at Bangor International Airport at about 11 p.m. Thursday, arriving from London, where Swift attended the premiere of Beyonce's concert film "Renaissance" earlier that day.
The layover lasted about an hour before the jet took off with Kansas City marked as its next stop, where the newly minted billionaire's boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, lives.
According to Taylor Swift's Jets, the Dassault Falcon 7x jet flew from London to Bangor, using about 2,382 gallons of fuel amounting to about $13,300 and emitting about 25 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
Swift's use of private jets put the superstar in hot water last year, though a spokesperson with her team alleged the report fudged its finger pointing by failing to specify who was using the jet. Yard, a U.K.-based sustainability marketing firm, published a report in 2022 that naming Swift at the top of a list of celebrities who are the "worst private jet CO2 emission offenders."
"Taylor Swift might be today's pop princess, but Yard's research found that Miss Swift is the biggest celebrity CO2e polluter of this year so far. Racking up a total of 170 flights since January, Taylor's jet has amassed a vast 22,923 minutes in the air – 15.9 days. Quite a large amount considering that she is not currently touring," the report released in July 2022 stated.
Swift's team quickly came to the defense, with a spokesperson stating Swift regularly rented out her jet to others and was not always using it herself, according to a report in the Guardian.
Swift kicked off her Eras Tour in spring of 2023. By August, it was the highest-grossing tour ever by a woman and second highest-grossing overall, only surpassed by Elton John's Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour that ran from 2018 to 2023, according to a report from Forbes.
"Beginning in March and ending in August, Swift played 56 stadium shows across 20 U.S. cities and Mexico City, grossing more than an estimated $780 million and earning the 33-year-old pop queen an estimated $305 million," the article stated.
According to an article published in November in Simple Flying, an aviation news website, Swift owns two Dassault Falcon jets and has "Despite racking up thousands of miles in air travel through her tour so far, Swift appears to have largely scaled back her jet usage through 2023," the article states, also noting Swift reportedly has purchased more than twice the amount of carbon credits to "offset emissions through the tour via Terrapass."
NEWS CENTER Maine's 207 had a chance to talk with Swift back in 2007, early in her career, while she was on tour with Brad Paisley. We recently revisited the interview this October.
NEWS CENTER Maine has reached out to Bangor International Airport for comment but has not yet heard back.