Managing Real-Time Flight Exposure for Executives in 2025
Recent high-profile incidents in 2025 show open-source flight tracking continues to draw significant public attention, and, in some cases, unprecedented levels of real-time scrutiny.
In June 2025, flight data monitoring revealed more than 90 private jets touched down in Venice within a single day, ahead of Jeff Bezos’s high‑profile wedding. Tracking firms logged arrivals by celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Oprah Winfrey, Bill Gates, and even royalty, making it one of the most closely watched private‑jet events of the year.
In March 2025, the chartered jet carrying former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to The Hague became the most-tracked flight on Flightradar24, with more than 10,000 people following it live.
These events highlight flight visibility is now pervasive, durable, and not easily reversible. Because aircraft position signals are collected by global volunteer networks and mirrored across multiple platforms, movements of private and charter aircraft are captured, archived, and searchable even when individual posts or feeds disappear. The result is a persistent public record of executive travel spanning borders and operators (owned, fractional, or chartered).
How Tail Numbers Become Personal Identifiers – and Why it Matters
Since Concentric’s flight-tracking assessment in 2022, the number of crowd-sourced Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) receivers and aggregation platforms has grown substantially, making it easier to connect aircraft movements to individuals. Even with privacy programs such as the Limiting Aircraft Data Displayed (LADD) program and the Privacy International Civil Aviation Organization (PIA) address in place, independent tracking networks can bypass official restrictions, making operational security measures essential to disrupt pattern-building.
Today’s tracking platforms automatically merge ADS-B archives with plane-spotter images, event agendas, corporate filings, and employee posts, then apply machine learning to detect patterns. Analysts can identify frequently flown routes, flag unusual stops, estimate ground time, and even forecast likely next destinations in near real time, producing a detailed picture of exposure from arrival through departure.
The impact is immediate: exposure no longer ends with where a principal has traveled – it points to where they are likely to go, and when. Activist groups and opportunists can position themselves before landing, competitors and journalists can spark deal speculation within minutes, and fraudsters time voice-clone or urgent-payment scams to predictable periods of unavailability. Increasingly, flight tracking is combined with geotagged posts and rideshare or hotel check-in breadcrumbs, allowing adversaries to time their presence at private aviation terminals within minutes of the first sighting.
Mitigating Controls
To stay ahead, organizations should shift from monitoring to preauthorized actions that can be executed before arrival, with clear accountability across security, travel, and communications. Concentric recommends the following steps to protect you, your family, and your business associations from jet-tracking:
Match the speed of exposure with active pattern disruption. Move from passive monitoring to proactive controls that are triggered as soon as tracking activity is detected.
Set smarter alerts. Combine flight sightings with local protest schedules and spikes in online chatter so alerts drive immediate, context-aware actions.
Reduce traceability, especially overseas. Use third-party call signs and rotate aircraft/tail numbers. Apply tighter controls on non-U.S. legs where LADD/PIA protections don’t apply.
Tighten information and vendor hygiene. Limit live travel details to essential personnel only. Stagger or redact calendar entries to remove live-location breadcrumbs that could aid real-time tracking.
Secure communications during offline periods: Establish clear rules for who may contact the principal and through which channels while they are in transit or otherwise unavailable. Use pre-agreed authentication measures to reduce the risk of impersonation or social-engineering attacks.
How Concentric Can Help
Concentric delivers real-time monitoring, OSINT analysis, and vetted ground support to disrupt travel-related risks before they impact executives. By aligning security, intelligence, and communications, we protect principals, safeguard operational confidentiality, and ensure business continuity in an increasingly transparent travel environment.
Travel risk assessments and geotagged alerts: Itinerary-specific analysis and real-time monitoring around airports, hotels, and venues aligned to executive movements.
Threat landscape monitoring: Correlating executive travel routes with emerging activist activity, licensed demonstrations, and sentiment spikes to identify and mitigate potential flashpoints.
Vendor and route vetting: Evaluation of fixed-base operators (FBOs), transport providers, and curb-to-gate routes for exposure risks, ensuring every stage of travel follows vetted and secure protocols.
OSINT and deep and dark web monitoring: Detection of tail-number mentions, images, and related leaks across open, fringe, and dark-web ecosystems, prioritized for timely action.
Online reputation support: Rapid narrative mapping, impact assessment, and coordinated security and communications responses if flight sightings spark rumors or speculation.
For more information on mitigating flight-tracking risks and enhancing executive travel security, please reach out to Concentric’s Global Intelligence team.