This story was produced in partnership with The Oregonian/OregonLive. ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to investigating abuses of power. Subscribe to Dispatchesnewsletter covering crime across the country to get our stories delivered to your inbox every week.
Nike, the world’s largest sportswear brand, has begun to discourage public scrutiny of its corporate jets after ProPublica and The Oregonian/OregonLive highlighted the executive’s travel destinations. In doing so, he became the latest participant in the cat-and-mouse game of jet owners who seek to hide their movements around the world.
A month after the article was published, the two Nike Gulfstream G650ER jets were no longer visible on flight tracking website FlightAware. Both have been added to the Federal Aviation Administration’s Restricted Aircraft Display List, which consists of aircraft that sites such as FlightAware are prohibited from displaying. The listing makes it harder – but not impossible – to see where the planes are flying.
We reported that Nike’s private jets emitted nearly 20% more carbon dioxide last year than in 2015, which the company uses as a baseline for its climate goals. Airplanes are one of the small reasons why Nike and its supply chain produced roughly the same amount of carbon dioxide in 2023 as they did in 2015, despite the company’s voluntary commitment to dramatically reduce emissions.
The website LADDlist.com first discovered the blocking of one of the jets on August 27, just two weeks after the article was published and days after flight records showed the plane was returning from a 10-day trip to Cape Cod, Massachusetts , where company executive chairman Mark Parker owns a home. It is unclear from LADDlist when the other aircraft was blocked, but it was seen on FlightAware as of August 13.
An FAA spokesman would not confirm the timing of any aircraft being listed, and Nike did not respond to questions. The planes can still be tracked using another data source that ProPublica and The Oregonian/OregonLive used in their reporting.
Air travel was considered public information because taxpayers help fund the air traffic control system that regulates public space, said Chuck Collins of the progressive Institute for Policy Studies.
Collins, who has studied the FAA’s secrecy programs, called Nike’s move an attempt to avoid responsibility. He said it’s the same as Nike saying, “We don’t want ProPublica bothering us. We don’t want to appear in the newspaper.”
A precursor to the LADD list, which contained the names of 1,100 jet owners who wanted to hide their trips, was private until ProPublica fought in court to get it from the FAA. After organizing the news reported on program participants in 2010The FAA said blocking tracking requires aircraft owners to demonstrate a reasonable safety concern. But under pressure from Congress and lobbying groups of pilots and aircraft owners, the FAA soon dropped the requirement.
Since then, the list of blocked numbers has exploded. It now includes 52,000 aircraft, or 24% of all registered aircraft in the country, according to FAA records obtained in January by the Institute for Policy Studies.
The National Business Aviation Association, which represents owners of corporate jets, cited privacy as the main reason for the program’s existence. “People should not be required to give up their right to privacy, safety and security from corporate espionage just because they get on a plane,” said association spokesman Dan Hubbard.
Passenger manifests are not public.
Many celebrities have protested against the disclosure of their jet trips by individuals and groups, drawing attention to their carbon footprint. After a college student posted the location of Elon Musk’s planes on X, the social media platform Musk owns, Musk tried to buy an account and then temporarily suspended the student.
Nike executives’ travels remain visible through other means, thanks to transponder technology known as automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast, or ADS-B, which was implemented as part of the FAA’s transition to a more accurate next-generation air traffic control system. ProPublica and The Oregonian/OregonLive used transponder recordings from a site called the ADS-B Exchange to track flights on Nike planes.
Some news reports have focused on the travels of CEO John Donagh, a former Silicon Valley tech executive who kept a home in the Bay Area after starting at Nike. Airports near his home became a magnet for Nike planes during his tenure.
The morning after former Nike executive Elliott Hill was named as Donagh’s replacement on Sept. 19, a Nike jet transponder said the plane had taken off from the Portland area, records show.
With the moving van parked outside Donahoe’s condominium building in downtown Portland, the plane climbed to a cruising altitude of 41,000 feet and landed in San Jose, California, less than 24 hours after Donahoe’s exit was announced.
