AEW owner Tony Khan chartered private planes from three hub locations and arranged road trips to get wrestlers and staff to Phoenix for Full Gear, after a nationwide flight disruption threatened to keep much of the roster from reaching the show. Khan said most of the staff would likely have missed their scheduled flights without the charters, and the company moved quickly to avoid that outcome.
The disruption stemmed from an FAA ground stop that halted flights across the country. The stoppage was reportedly the longest in about 25 years, and thousands of flights were canceled while it was in effect. The cause was reported as a faulty communications router. Even after the stop, cancellations and delays were expected to linger, with the Thanksgiving travel peak still ahead. Thousands of travelers were stranded in airports, and many turned to trains and automobiles as alternatives. For a company with a fixed event date and a roster spread across the country, waiting for commercial flights to recover was not a realistic option.
Instead, AEW's travel effort relied on a mix of methods. Some wrestlers drove, others flew private, and some combined the two. Several arrived hours behind schedule. Tony Schiavone switched from an Atlanta flight to a smaller plane out of Asheville. Excalibur drove about five hours from Southern California, and Nigel McGuinness drove from Los Angeles. The Young Bucks made the trip by car from California to Phoenix. Davis and Doyle traveled by car first and then completed the journey on a private jet, showing how the plan adapted to each wrestler's location and schedule.
The effort came with one reported change to the event itself. The Tailgate Brawl was dropped from the pre-show, the only alteration reported. Full Gear was held at the Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, and the main card was scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. ET, streaming on HBO Max. For fans, the result was that the scheduled card would proceed largely as planned, with the travel scramble happening out of view.