Wal-Mart headquarters is in the middle of nowhere Arkansas. When my wife was there, they had a strict policy that you fly private only when it is cheaper than flying commercial. This mainly only happened when traveling with a team that can fill the jet.
Thanks for adding info on this. Everyone I've talked to who has worked at Wal-Mart HQ has talked about how cost-conscious the entire company is. I would be really surprised if things like private jets there weren't part of a strong cost-benefit analysis.
It also enables high level manager to visit stores and come back in the same day. Or visit 3 stores in two days.
So those same managers are more inclined to go actually visit the stores they are in charge of. Imagine having to visit 5 or 6 walmarts across different small cities, doing it commercially would take a week or more.
Fwiw, the nearby airport, XNA¹, opened in 1998 largely to replace FYV as the facility for commercial service. FYV was a crap airport from a pilot/dispatch perspective and flights often were cancelled when the the weather was below minimums; a frequent event².
As the destination airport for both Wal-Mart execs and vendors seeking an audience, FYV was a huge headache for all involved.
Curiously, XNA had its own problems when in 2011 runway degredation was found, so a temporary one was built while the main runway was torn down and re-slabbed. What a PITA.
¹—at the time of its opening it was nicknamed the "eXtra Nice Airport" as a cute promotional blurb and as a handy mnemonic for its unique IATA code.
²—legend has it that in its initial planning phase the surveyor for the siting of FYV died prior to making a final recommendation; "luckily, " they found on his maps a big red X and assumed that would have been his recommended location. So, rather than contract another surveyor and incur more expense & delay, they just went with that and built it there. However, when the airport opened, the frequently fickle weather there with subsequent disruptions to service led those in the know to acknowledge that the "big red X" must have meant, "this site is completely ruled out." Oops.
Well obviously... The private jets are typically used when a person literally cannot deal with delays due to time pressures on their schedule or geographic constraints. Is that really the case here?
From the article
> The plane was a favorite of Mr. Neumann’s, who would use it frequently to zip between his homes in the Bay Area and New York.
Also, Walmart is a business that actually makes money. Doesn't seem like the same situation.