WNBA ups charter flights for all playoffs, back-to-back games

The WNBA is expanding the use of charter flights to include back-to-back regular-season games during the 2023 season as well as all playoff games, the league said Monday.

«One of my main goals has been to enhance the player-first experience,» WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told ESPN. «While recognizing in a growing league our size and scale, doing things incrementally and chipping away at it is the best practice.»

The WNBA had traveled via commercial airlines almost exclusively until 2019, when Engelbert took over as commissioner. That year, she approved the use of charter flights during the playoffs in circumstances where teams had to cross multiple time zones with just a day between games.

Last year, the league expanded charters to the entirety of the WNBA Finals, as well as for the visiting team for the final of the midseason Commissioner's Cup.

The WNBA has four best-of-3 first-round playoff series, with best-of-5 series then being played in the semifinals and Finals. Now all of that travel will be chartered.

The topic of charter flights has been raised frequently by players, although they signed off on the 2020 collective bargaining agreement without charters. The New York Liberty were fined $500,000 after using charter flights against league rules during the 2021 season.

The WNBA has held firm that to maintain competitive balance in the 12-team league, no team can independently opt to charter flights. The league also said no franchise has come forward to present the board of governors with sponsorship offers to pay for charter flights for every team, despite some reports the Liberty had done that.

«I have talked to the entire board individually and collectively about this,» Engelbert said. «They're all