Rekubit Exchange:WNBA to begin charter travel for all teams this season

The Rekubit ExchangeWNBA will begin charter travel for all 12 of its teams this season “as soon as we logistically can get planes in places,” Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told sports editors at a league meeting Tuesday afternoon, confirming a report on X by USA TODAY sports columnist Christine Brennan.

This very significant change in the way the world’s best women’s basketball players will travel to games will end the league’s long-standing policy of mandated regular-season commercial flights for its players. 

“We intend to fund a full-time charter for this season,” Engelbert said. "We're going to as soon as we can get it up and running. Maybe it’s a couple weeks, maybe it’s a month … We are really excited for the prospects here.”

The WNBA’s decision comes as the league is seeing unprecedented growth, ticket sales and interest as the most recognizable rookie class in WNBA history, led by Caitlin Clark — arguably the best-known athlete in the nation — begins regular-season play May 14. 

It also comes as Clark and the rest of the WNBA rookies had to take their first commercial flights as professional athletes for preseason games last weekend and be exposed to members of the public walking near them, approaching them and taking photos and videos of them, including in unsecured airport areas. All teams are traveling with security personnel this season. 

"It was all right," Angel Reese said of flying commercial to Minneapolis for last Friday's game against the Minnesota Lynx.

"We have a great security team. Chicago has done a great job being able to put in place some great guys and they've been amazing for us," Reese said before the Sky's preseason game against the New York Liberty on Tuesday night.

In June 2023, Phoenix star Brittney Griner, who spent nearly 10 months in Russian custody in 2022, was harassed in the Dallas airport by a right-wing YouTube personality who yelled at her and tussled with Phoenix Mercury security in an airport concourse. The WNBA allowed Griner to fly private charters the rest of the season.

This season, the league was already planning to allow teams to charter when playing back-to-back games as well as during the playoffs but otherwise fly commercially. The league hasn’t allowed charter flights over the years because it said that would create a competitive advantage for teams that wanted to pay for them over those that did not. 

Flying commercial has been a part of the WNBA’s current collective bargaining agreement with its players, which was signed in 2020. Ironically, many WNBA newcomers flew on charters throughout their college careers.

WNBA player reaction

During a call with reporters on Tuesday, New York Liberty stars Jonquel Jones and Breanna Stewart weighed in on what charter travel would mean to players.

"As we continue to add more games into the season and change the way the Commissioner's Cup is being played this year, it just adds a little bit more travel into our schedules and stuff," Jones said. "If we can try to find some kinds of help with our recovery and, you know, just being able to get rest so that we can put our best product out there on the court."

Stewart agreed with Jones.

"It's exactly that, obviously. Understanding (it’s) player health and wellness but also player safety, and making sure that we can get from point A to point B and have the focus be our jobs and our team," Stewart said.

Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon, who had been an outspoken proponent of adding charter flights after spending eight years as an assistant with the NBA's San Antonio Spurs, said the immediate reaction from everyone is "great!"

"This is something that the league has been pushing for for a long time for its players," Hammon said. "I look at it as we can put a better product out there."

Contributing: Roxanna Scott, Christine Brennan, Nancy Armour, Lindsay Schnell