The small Idaho town of Sun Valley normally has a population of just 1,783 – but this week that figure is expected to swell to include hundreds of more people and at least 165 private jets.
The Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference has been held annually, the week after July 4, for decades. Employees at the nearby Friedman Memorial Airport reportedly refer to the conference as “the annual fly-in event” while others jokingly call it “summer camp for billionaires.”
Most of the week’s agenda is secret and the reporters present are told to stay off-the-record, but it is rumored that Sun Valley was the origin of several high profile mergers and Jeff Bezos’ decision to buy the Washington Post.
Among the names reportedly present at this year’s conference are Disney CEO Bob Iger, Paramount Chair Shari Redstone, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Several prominent politicians, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore also scored invites to the event, according to Variety.
It’s challenging to determine the exact number of private planes flying into the Idaho airport, due to recent changes in Federal Aviation Administration policy that allow for jet owners to conceal their flight data from tracking websites. Still, the flight-tracking website FlightAware shows more than a hundred non-concealed flights landing in Sun Valley.
Where do all the private jets go?
While the conference is undoubtedly a significant event for the business community, the dozens of private jets can be something of a high stress situation for the normally quiet ski town.
In 2022, Chris Pomeroy, the director of Friedman Memorial Airport, described the level of congestion that had been seen in years prior like so: “I saw airplanes literally lined up to take off from the north end of the field almost all the way down to the south end of the field. Tail to nose, all the way up the taxiway.”
In the ensuing years, the airport has taken several steps to mitigate high levels of traffic, including coordinating with an FAA hub in Salt Lake City to line up the private jets hundreds of miles outside the airport.
Before this intervention “it looked like an attack — it was just airplanes coming from all points of the compass, all trying to get here at the same time,” former FAA district manager Greg Dyer told the New York Times.
More recently, local officials have weighed building a second jet hangar, to accommodate the excess of private planes.
“It was very noticeable that we had planes dropping their clients off and leaving and coming back and we’re hoping that this is not the continuing process here,” said Martha Burke, the chairwoman of Friedman Memorial Airport’s governing board, according to Boise State Public Radio.
Some community members, however, have criticized the proposal, which would make takeoffs and landing more efficient for wealthy visitors.
“Is that the vibe that Friedman Memorial Airport wants to foster?” questioned pilot Caitlin McCarthy, according to Boise State Public Radio.