For years, Premier League clubs have been chartering flights to travel to their away matches, even for medium-distance domestic trips. But the global climate crisis is placing more scrutiny on teams’ commitment to environmental sustainability, so these shorter flights are becoming more controversial. Advertisement To offer a snapshot of how often teams fly to games, The Athletic looked at the final 10 rounds of fixtures in the 2023-24 Premier League season.
It is a relatively small sample size but provides an indication of how clubs travel when on ‘the road’, despite the quirks of the fixture calendar. Some sides faced long-distance games with night-time kick-offs, often in fixtures rearranged at short notice for domestic television coverage. Others were involved in the European competitions, with midweek trips and overnight returns on Wednesdays or Thursdays.
Yet even this 10-game period illustrates just how often clubs are flying rather than travelling by road or rail. Across those 100 matches, Premier League teams made at least 58 trips to or from games using charter flights. Just three — Crystal Palace , Fulham and Luton Town — did not fly once, although none had particularly long away journeys during the 10-fixture sample.
Burnley , Chelsea , Nottingham Forest , Sheffield United and Wolverhampton Wanderers all made one journey by plane. Arsenal , Aston Villa , Brentford , Liverpool , Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United flew three times to or from games, Brigh.