Infantino’s 2026 World Cup Travels: Nearly 60,000 Miles and 115 Hours in the Air

FIFA President Gianni Infantino accumulated extraordinary air travel during the 2026 World Cup, a sprawling tournament spanning three nations, 16 cities and four time zones. An analysis of flight logs by The Associated Press reveals the soccer chief flew enough miles to circle the planet nearly 2.5 times while attending matches, meetings and official functions through the championship final in New Jersey on Sunday.

The Gulfstream G650 jet, supplied from Qatar’s government fleet and operated by Qatar Airways’ private charter division, facilitated Infantino’s relentless schedule beginning with a June 9 Los Angeles-to-Mexico City flight ahead of the tournament opener. Flight-tracking data shows the aircraft averaged more than one daily flight, with multiple departures occurring on certain days throughout the competition.

Infantino attended 43 of the tournament’s 104 matches across all 16 World Cup venues, with Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium visited most frequently at five games. The itinerary included stops in New York for a Fox & Friends appearance and Miami for a FIFA summit with representatives from 211 member associations, alongside a detour to Doha for Qatar’s former emir’s funeral.

The presidential travels totaled 59,281 miles and 115 flight hours, excluding the Qatar funeral journey. His longest single flight covered 5 hours and 44 minutes from Miami to Seattle on June 15, while the shortest spanned 28 minutes between Seattle and Vancouver on July 6.

The expanded three-country format produced record carbon emissions concerns among climate researchers and environmental groups, who cited extensive air travel by teams, fans and officials as driving the tournament’s greenhouse gas intensity. FIFA has pledged to halve World Cup carbon emissions by 2030 and reach net-zero status by 2040 under its sustainability framework.