Palantir spent $17.2 million flying its CEO Alex Karp around in 2025. It’s part of a private-jet boom sweeping the C-suite

You’ll probably never hear a plane-with-only-two-parachutes joke featuring a crying baby, a chatty grandma, and the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. That’s because the besuited bunch is increasingly flying private—even as employers cut back on other lavish benefits for top executives.

The majority of Fortune 500 CEOs are now  flying private  on the company dime, according to the executive data firm Equilar. And data shows that company-provided private jet spending soared 19% between 2021 and 2024.