Burning Man allows single company to charter its flight program

In years past, there were several options for a prospective Burner to charter a flight from the Bay Area to Black Rock City. But starting this year, the Burner Express Air service was the only charter flight program the organization allowed, giving exclusive access to the event’s desert airport to a single “Burner-owned and operated company.”

If attendees have already booked flights to Burning Man, they are asked to contact their air carrier to confirm they are in the Burner Express Air program.

More recently, though, the practice of chartering private, expensive flights that carry few passengers at a time may seem to conflict with the Burning Man principles of decommodification and leaving no trace on the environment. The event organizers said the unified Burner Express Air program was “part of our ongoing efforts to reduce traffic and make air travel more accessible and affordable while maintaining a high level of safety for the Burning Man event.”

The Burning Man Project, the nonprofit that organizes the event, launched the Burner Express air shuttle service in 2016 to fly Burners from seven small airports (a one-way ticket from OAK was $625), but it has since evolved into a profitable and popular service. It now operates out of small airport terminals at Reno, Burbank and Oakland. 

“Compared to commercial airlines, yes these tickets are more expensive,” the organizers wrote on the website. “However, this is not a commercial airline, flying to an established Airport in an easy to reach location. It takes a lot to create a temporary charter service to the magical Burning Man Airport, 88NV; from finding carriers who will land on the playa, to securing aircraft for the entire 2-week period, to building the ramp and charter terminal, and making it all disappear without a trace after the event is over.”