ACS Planning for Complex, Widespread 2026 World Cup

Air Charter Service is preparing for what it calls its most complex World Cup to date as the 2026 tournament expands to 48 teams competing across 16 stadiums in four time zones. ACS said the vast geography of the event is already prompting demand for charters, with distances between some venues exceeding 2,000 miles and limited direct scheduled service to match expected traffic.

ACS group commercial director Alex Sadat-Shafai said charters will be a necessity, citing the lack of sufficient direct flights and the operational complexity created by the tournament’s scale. He contrasted the layout with Qatar 2022, where stadiums were just 34 miles apart, and recalled arranging more than 350 flights for the similarly dispersed 2018 Russia event.

Group-stage travel alone poses substantial challenges. In Group J, Algeria faces a total of 3,685 miles between matches in San Francisco and Kansas City. England’s itinerary includes an opener near Dallas, followed by a more than 1,800-mile trip to Boston, where ACS noted that current airline schedules will not support timely fan travel. The city pair spanning the greatest distance in the tournament, Vancouver to Miami, will not occur in group play, but it illustrates the extreme spread of venues.

ACS said it has already secured several early bookings and expects volume to grow. The broker highlighted its footprint across all three host countries and eight of the 16 host cities as a factor driving demand from clients seeking coordinated charter support.