NCAA March Madness Sweet 16 Pre-Event Week: All Five Host Cities See Business Jet Traffic Decline 25%–36% Rather Than Rise — Event Business Jet Demand Pulse Window Is Extremely Narrow, Brokers Pre-Positioning Aircraft One Week Early Face Idle Risk

The 2026 Sweet 16 (March 27–28) is distributed across Houston, San Jose, Chicago, Washington, and Indianapolis. But the pre-event week (March 19–25) vs. early-month baseline (March 1–7), all five cities' business jet traffic declined: Houston -36.0% (1,518 to 972), San Jose -32.4%, Washington -35.3%, Indianapolis -33.1%, Chicago -25.3%. This contrasts sharply with events like the Masters, which show traffic surges a week in advance. NCAA event business jet demand pulses may concentrate in the 24–48 hours before games rather than a full week, and Brokers pre-positioning aircraft a week ahead will bear significant idle costs. Confidence: ★★ (AviGo five-city dual-period data complete; lacking event-day data to verify peak timing).