A private airport to use for its employees, this is the latest crazy idea Elon Musk. According to the local newspaper ‘Austonia’, Tesla’s CEO would be interested in build an airport in Bastropa suburb of Austin, in Texaswhere Tesla recently opened one of its new ones Gigafactory.
It is no mystery that Elon particularly appreciates Texas and the city of Austin, to the point that in recent months several headquarters of his companies have moved to the Texan city, leaving Palo Alto and Los Angeles, in California.
Officially, the reason for the construction of this airport would be to give additional support to the employees of Tesla, SpaceXAnd The Boring Companybut the reality is that Elon Musk flies for more than 240,000 km every year (more than 6 times the circumference of the earth, just to make a comparison) and having an airport near the headquarters of your companies would be incredibly convenient. According to what reported the The Washington Post in 2019, Elon Musk owns (or owned, so many things have changed over the years) 4 private jetsincluding a $ 70 million Gulfstream G650ER, a $ 61.5 million G550, and a $ 26 million Dassault Falcon 900B.
The news regarding the intention to build an airport, for now, leaves the time it finds: the bureaucratic permits from the EPA and the FAA are very difficult to obtain, and a study on the environmental impact and air traffic must still be envisaged, but if there is anyone who is able to extricate himself from these regulations it is Musk himself, as demonstrated in Germany with the opening of the Gigafactory in Berlinlong opposed by environmental groups and blocked by bureaucracy suffocating.
We just have to wait and find out if this news will really be confirmed; at that point it will be interesting to understand who and which employees of Musk’s companies will be allowed to exploit the airport.
