When it comes to winning at sport, it appears that even the way athletes travel can drastically influence their performance. Some sports teams have to fly more than 370,000 km in a single season and Lithuanian charter carrier KlasJet suggests that these teams may have a 60 per cent greater chance of coming back home with gold if their transit is more comfortable.

A study following National Basketball Association (NBA) players has shown that poor performance was more likely when the team had to cross three different time zones before a competition. To solve the problem, the NBA made a deal with an airline that allowed the majority of their teams to use chartered jets specifically configured to host the players. The study showed that greater comfort when travelling helped the athletes save more time and energy, as well as better prepare mentally for the game, than when flying with commercial scheduled airlines. They can use their flight time productively; rather than sleep and watch films, teams such as hockey legends Bruin use the time in the air to review their competitors' games and study their strengths and weaknesses.

“Chartered flights are extremely convenient because they can take the teams directly to their destination without any additional headaches such as transfers or waiting in lines at the check-ins,” says KlasJet CEO Rita Domkute “The athletes don't have to worry about flight delays; private jet timetables meet the customer's request precisely. Overtime is common in sports matches but regular airlines don't have the flexibility to delay flights when that happens.”

In EuroLeague, the European professional basketball club competition, the majority of teams use commercial flights yet those that do fly privately tend to perform better. Lithuanian team Zalgiris Kaunas used to spend a lot of extra time and energy travelling to matches in different parts of the world, but when it changed the way it travelled the results were startling. Zalgiris won 18 games in the 2017-2018 EuroLeague season compared to seven games in the 2015-2016 season. This improvement happened after Zalgiris signed a deal with KlasJet to use its business class Boeing 737, and it was their best performance since the 1999 season when they had dominated European basketball.

“This year the EuroLeague expanded the field to 18 teams instead of 16 and will have more games than ever before, but it is extremely important to take the proper rest before the matches. Basketball is like second religion in Lithuania and we try to do everything to make sure we give the best performance possible,” says Zalgiris head coach Sarunas Jasikevicius. “Taking into account how hard the team trains and how tall basketball players are, comfort and having extra time to strategise are a must. I believe that every detail in basketball counts and that flying by private jet helps us to perform better.”