High-Flying Hospitality: Why the Masters is the Private Jet Industry’s New Crown Jewel

Masters Editorial
Written By Christian Griffith

The Battle for the Ground Game

While these companies are known for flying, the real competition has shifted to lavish on-the-ground hospitality. Companies are renting mansions, hiring Michelin-star chefs, and hosting private concerts to keep clients engaged throughout the week.

  • NetJets: The industry leader expects over 775 flights (a 40% increase from last year). They host a legendary Friday night party and are currently building a permanent 432,000-square-foot terminal at Augusta Regional Airport.

  • Wheels Up: Their "Wheels Down Club" is located just a 10-minute walk from the course, offering a place for members to check their phones (which are banned on the course) and enjoy tastings from Chef José Andrés.

  • Vista: Operating the "Vista House" in Westlake, they feature appearances by brand ambassadors and golf stars like Jon Rahm and Phil Mickelson.

Logistical Challenges

The sheer volume of air traffic—thousands of private jets—has pushed local infrastructure to its limit:

  • Augusta Regional Airport has expanded its jet parking to accommodate 200 planes at a time and increased "special event fees" by 25%.

  • Flexjet has taken a different tactical approach by moving its entire operation to the Thomson-McDuffie Regional Airport to avoid Augusta's congestion, prioritizing a seamless "in-and-out" experience for their clients.

Why the Masters?

Unlike one-day events like the Super Bowl, the Masters provides a full week of high-net-worth traffic. As VistaJet’s president noted, it has become a "tentpole" event where corporate executives and ultra-high-net-worth individuals go not just to watch golf, but to network and close deals.

Christian Griffith

Christian Griffith lives, eats, sleeps, and drinks artificial intelligence [AI], digital marketing, brand advertising, and communications strategy on a daily basis.

His career has been deeply entrenched in branding, web development, internet marketing, online advertising, and creative strategy since 1997, but believes AI and big data to be the biggest advancements to hit business in a lifetime.

After 25 years in executive leadership, Christian Griffith left his last gig as SVP of Digital Strategy at Atlanta ad agency, Freebairn and Company, to start his own shop in 2015 called Live for a Living. A wildly successful 10-year run with Live for a Living opened the doors to an additional venture focused squarely on the advantages that AI brings to business. Now, with the 2025 launch of Kai Daddy Digital, he's helping clients get a serious edge by using cutting-edge AI and big data digital strategies on the marketing platforms that have proven to work for over a decade.

Christian loves being daddy to daughter, Kai, first and foremost, leaning into challenging fitness-type events and extreme sports for fun after that. In 2018, Christian ran 3,142 miles across the USA, New York to San Francisco, in an effort to raise $1 million for the prevention and treatment of child sexual abuse.

In 2025, Christian launched 5-Minute Fitness, a program as he calls it, “to eliminate all barriers to fitness training success,” targeting at-risk individuals such as the sedentary or over-40 crowd. As of this writing, he has over 600 members.

https://liveforaliving.com
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