Sports Teams, Airlines Flying High Together

Obviously sports teams do a lot of traveling and it's something I spend little time thinking about. But sports travel is big business with the average pro sports team paying between $1 and $3 million dollars per year, that money will buy you a lot of leg room. This  article from the Detroit Free Press breaks it all down.

Those touches are part of Delta's effort to expand the biggest charter operation among U.S. airlines, with $255 million in 2010 revenue. Sports teams made up almost half that total, and most of the rest came from military flying that is now shrinking as U.S. troops leave Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It would be totally impossible to transport 600 players, coaches, support staff, cheerleaders and band members there and back commercially," said Jeff Hawkins, director of football operations at the University of Oregon in Eugene. "Delta bends over backwards to be hospitable to us."

via Delta seeks boost from charters | freep.com | Detroit Free Press.