The Weeknd owns no private jet; spotters tie his 2023 tour to a rented JetMagic 757 and BBJ2 N908BH
Why It MattersTouring artists commonly fly on rented airliners and charter lift rather than registering aircraft, so an FAA registry search shows who owns the planes, not who was flying on them.
What happened
A search of the FAA's releasable aircraft database, the October 30, 2026 release, found no aircraft registered to Abel Tesfaye, The Weeknd, Starboy or his label XO, and no cancelled registration naming him. The aircraft linked to his After Hours til Dawn Tour in 2023 were rented airliners photographed by spotters on tour dates.
In Europe, an aviation account posted a clip on June 14, 2023, from Manchester Airport of a JetMagic Boeing 757-200, saying it was the aircraft he had been using for the tour, four days after his Manchester show. The caption named the operator but not the registration. The identification points to 9H-AVM (serial 24527) because it was the only aircraft JetMagic, a Malta-based charter airline, was flying in 2023. The 757 flew its last Maltese-registered flight from London Luton on October 27, 2023, and went into storage at Lasham. It was re-registered N107TV on December 23, 2024.
In Latin America, a JetPhotos spotter photographed Boeing BBJ2 N908BH (serial 32915, first flown September 25, 2001) in Santiago, where he played October 15 and 16, 2023. The caption says it was used for his tour, especially the Latin American dates. It was registered as N908BH on January 12, 2022, to Bank of Utah as trustee, and a 2024 sale listing describes it as Part 135 compliant with 17 seats for hire, 5,223 hours and 1,660 landings. The FAA cancelled the registration on April 15, 2026, on export to San Marino, and it reappeared as T7-BBJ2 on May 13.
The tour began July 14, 2022, in Philadelphia and is scheduled to end in Kuala Lumpur on November 5, 2026. It passed $1 billion in ticket sales by November 2025, with $1.004 billion across 153 shows. No aircraft has been identified for the 2022 North America, 2024 Australia, 2025 North America or 2026 legs.
Industry impact & what to watch
The case shows how celebrity travel usually reaches the charter market. An act playing 153 shows across several continents needs lift that changes with the region, and a rented 757 for one leg and a hire-ready BBJ2 for another is a normal way to cover it. The artist never appears on a registration; the operator, the trustee and the aircraft's owner of record do.
For spotters and analysts, this means an identification built from a caption and a tour date is an inference about who chartered the aircraft, not a record of who owned it. The registry can confirm an aircraft's history, such as the N908BH export to San Marino and its reappearance as T7-BBJ2, but it cannot confirm who was aboard on a given night.
What remains open is the aircraft behind the legs where none has been identified: the 2022 North America, 2024 Australia, 2025 North America and 2026 legs. Until the tour closes in Kuala Lumpur on November 5, 2026, those would have to come from fresh spotter sightings or operator disclosures.
