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This conference jokingly dubbed the “summer camp for billionaires” increases the population of a small Idaho town by quite a lot every year when a bunch of billionaires fly in with their private jets.

Sun Valley normally has a population of just 1,783, but in the week after July 4th, that figure usually swells to include hundreds of more people and at least 165 private jets.

Employees at the nearby Friedman Memorial Airport reportedly refer to the annual Allen & Co. Sun Valley Conference as “the annual fly-in event” while others jokingly call it “summer camp for billionaires.”

Most of the week’s agenda is kept secret, and reporters are told to keep things off the record. However, rumours suggest that Sun Valley has been the birthplace of some big mergers like Jeff Bezos’ decision to buy the Washington Post.

You can easily see how conspiracy theories about secret elite groups ruling the world become a thing.

For this year’s conference, the names that will reportedly be present include Disney CEO Bob Iger, Paramount Chair Shari Redstone, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, per Quartz.

Media and tech giants have arrived in style in Sun Valley, Idaho for ‘billionaires summer camp.’
The annual Allen & Co summer conference brings together industry titans from across the planet.
This years star-studded guest list includes Apple CEO Tim Cook, Disney boss Bob Iger pic.twitter.com/eHlueoCYUg

— MassiVeMaC (@SchengenStory) July 11, 2024

Several prominent politicians, including Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore also scored invites to the event, according to Variety.

And how do all these moneyed folk arrive? In each of their own private jets, of course.

Visuals from the Friedman Memorial Airport Sun Valley (SUN), Idaho – Summer camp for billionaires and one can see the Private jets descended on a small-town airport for several major business deals in the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference.#businessaviation #aviation #travel pic.twitter.com/8CbmDXwb6c

— FL360aero (@fl360aero) July 15, 2023

Because of the recent changes in Federal Aviation Administration policy that allow jet owners to conceal their flight data from tracking websites – so that we plebs can’t complain about their carbon footprint – it is challenging to determine the exact number of private planes flying into the Idaho airport

Nonetheless, the flight-tracking website FlightAware shows more than a hundred non-concealed flights landing in Sun Valley.

In 2022, Chris Pomeroy, the director of Friedman Memorial Airport, described the level of congestion that had been seen in years prior like so: “I saw airplanes literally lined up to take off from the north end of the field almost all the way down to the south end of the field. Tail to nose, all the way up the taxiway.”

While the area’s business community is abuzz, the dozens of private jets can put some strain on the normally quiet ski town. In the ensuing years, the airport has taken several steps to mitigate high traffic levels, including coordinating with an FAA hub in Salt Lake City to line up the private jets hundreds of miles outside the airport.

Before this intervention “it looked like an attack — it was just airplanes coming from all points of the compass, all trying to get here at the same time,” former FAA district manager Greg Dyer told the New York Times.

Local officials have had to petition to build a second jet hangar to accommodate the excess of private planes.

“It was very noticeable that we had planes dropping their clients off and leaving and coming back and we’re hoping that this is not the continuing process here,” said Martha Burke, the chairwoman of Friedman Memorial Airport’s governing board, according to Boise State Public Radio.

Meanwhile, a few community members have criticised the proposal, which would make takeoffs and landings more efficient for wealthy visitors, with one pilot Caitlin McCarthy questioning “Is that the vibe that Friedman Memorial Airport wants to foster?”

Probably, though. Where there is money, there is money to be made.

[source:quartz]