Private Jet Data May Point To Regional Bank Survival Plan

A Twitter user reported an unusually high number of private jets converging on one place, Omaha, Nebraska. Here’s why that might point to a regional bank survival plan. 

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Twitter User Reports Unusual Flight Activity

Over the last few days, Twitter user, FuzzyPandaShort, noticed an unusual trend for private jet flights to Omaha, Nebraska. Omaha is the home of Warren Buffett, one of the richest men in the world, a savvy investor, and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway.

Here is a series of tweets on the topic:

A large number (>20) of Private Jets landed in Omaha yesterday afternoon

Jets flew from HQs of Regional Banks, Ski Resorts & DC

Did Buffett just fly all the regional bank CEOs into Omaha & offer a deal to SAVE the banks?$BRK.B$WAL, $PACW, $FRC, $ZION, $KEY, $FITB, &more

🧵 pic.twitter.com/HNSrn7i8So

— FuzzyPanda 🇺🇦 (@FuzzyPandaShort) March 17, 2023

Panda notes that many of these jets landed at similar times and the number of jets is unusual for Omaha Eppley Airfield.

The Private Jets arrived in Omaha in multiple groups. Sometimes landing at almost the same exact time.

Did Buffett schedule some meetings with different groups of CEOs every hour?

Number of Jets arriving:
5 ~10am (est)
3 ~2pm
5 ~3:30pm
5 ~5pm
6 ~6:15pm
3 ~7:30pm pic.twitter.com/68Ok6zl8cA

— FuzzyPanda 🇺🇦 (@FuzzyPandaShort) March 17, 2023

Digging further into the data, Panda notes that most of the jets were on the ground in the destination for most of the week. Panda also specifically mentions NetJets, a company owned by Berkshire Hathaway.

Here is our list of all the private jet flights into Omaha along with a potential regional bank HQ nearby.

*Almost all the NetJets planes used were grounded all week long* pic.twitter.com/vxyzSonV6d

— FuzzyPanda 🇺🇦 (@FuzzyPandaShort) March 17, 2023

They also note the departure of those flights and the proximity to many regional bank headquarters. Some made stops of 15-30 minutes but appeared to be picking up passengers (maybe board members) along the way as most of the jets were capable of making the journey without a technical stop for fuel.

An added list of the ticker symbol for the suspected bankers follows with a list of the airports for which aircraft were then destined to return.

Omaha Private Jets we tracked flew to and from the HQ’s near the following Regional Banks:$PACW$WAL$FRC$ZION$KEY$FITB$VHN$HBAN$UMBF$ALLY$PNFP$EWBC$RF$MTB$ASB$SF$MOFG$NTRS$BMO

Note – don’t know which banks are in Nola; Fort Wayne, IN; Denver; Milwaukee; Vegas pic.twitter.com/6dXabWstyU

— FuzzyPanda 🇺🇦 (@FuzzyPandaShort) March 17, 2023

Could It Be Something Else?

There are many reasons why a bevy of corporate jets might descend on Omaha. First, as noted above, Berkshire Hathaway owns NetJets and could be bringing in its own clients or stakeholders for meetings completely unrelated to the banking/liquidity concerns that have brought about the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.

While Omaha hosts regional and national sports events and has hosted the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship tournament as well as its annual hosting of the College World Series, neither event was in Omaha during the week. Creighton, the city’s Division 1 school indeed made the tournament and played, but that would suggest those jets would have flown from Omaha to the event and not from other locations to Omaha.

Several large businesses have a major presence in Omaha, such as PayPal, TD Ameritrade, and ConAgra but the poster eliminated those brands from the tracking to avoid any normal movements. That’s not to say that those firms, two of which are financial institutions in their own right, didn’t fly in worried investors to reassure them that their money is safe and secure.

First National Bank of Omaha (listed as First National Bank of Nebraska) didn’t have the same challenges and more of its depositors were under the FDIC protection (more than 50% of accounts compared with just 2.3% of SVB accounts.) However, it may recall stakeholders and customers for the same purpose to Omaha.

It’s hard to say for sure.

Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire

Warren Buffett has made statements in the past about opportunities to shore up the financial sector when it presented itself last in 2008. Berkshire Hathaway provided $5 billion in liquidity for Goldman Sachs.

“The firm had the option of buying back the shares for US$5 billion plus a one-time dividend of US$500 million. Buffett stipulated that Goldman Sachs’ top executives pledge not to sell their own shares before Buffett sold his. Berkshire Hathaway would also acquire warrants to buy an additional US$5 billion of common stock at US$115 per share.” – Goldman Sachs

Berkshire and Buffett profited well from that deal and the entire financial sector from the bailouts that ensued. The Goldman deal, and suspected deal with these regionals, would likely be a private offering with favorable terms that does not put the onus on taxpayers leery of another government rescue plan.

According to reports and sources available to Bloomberg (paywall), Buffett has been in contact with President Biden’s Administration in recent days.

Conclusion

We have seen myriad ways that some Twitter users are utilizing publicly available flight data to determine the location of executives. It’s an interesting extrapolation when combining the origination of those flights and the proximity to the associated headquarters of regional banks to determine a possible deal.

What do you think? Are these flights part of a Berkshire Hathaway or Warren Buffett-led deal? 

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