WNBA set to have full-time charter flights for teams beginning this season

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For the first time in league history, the WNBA will have full-time chartered flights for its teams throughout the season.

Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a meeting with sports editors that the league will launch a charter program "as soon as we can get planes in places." 

She said it is projected to cost around $25 million per year for the next two seasons.

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A detail of the WNBA logo is seen on a basketball during warmups between the Seattle Storm and the Connecticut Sun at Climate Pledge Arena on June 20, 2023 in Seattle. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

Teams have traveled commercially since its inception in 1997, resulting in player safety concerns.

However, it reached a boiling point last year when Brittney Griner, roughly six months after she was released from Russian prison in a controversial exchange with United States officials, was targeted by "inappropriate and unfortunate" actions of a "social media figure and provocateur" at a Dallas airport.

Griner and other members of the Phoenix Mercury were walking in a Dallas airport when Alex Stein walked beside her and asked why she "hates" and "still want[s] to boycott" America.

Griner said the incident was "rock bottom" for the WNBA.

Earlier this week, Caitlin Clark, the NCAA's all-time scorer and first pick of last month's WNBA Draft, said that flying commercial would have been "an adjustment."

LSU's Flau'Jae Johnson also said she wanted to see "conditions for the players" improve.

Caitlin Clark speaks in a press conference after she was selected with the number one overall pick to the Indiana Fever in the 2024 WNBA Draft at