WNBA to begin full-time charter flights this season, commissioner says

The WNBA plans to commit $50 million over the next two years to provide full-time charter flight service for its teams during the season, the league's commissioner announced Tuesday in a move that addresses years of player safety concerns.

Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said in a meeting with sports editors that the league will launch a charter program “as soon as we can get planes in places.” She said it's projected to cost around $25 million per year for the next two seasons.

That means no more long security lines, bodyguards in public spaces, cramped legroom or layovers for the professional athletes who have been lobbying for better travel long before Caitlin Clark's celebrity brought newfound interest to the league.

Most importantly, Lynx forward Napheesa Collier says, it means safety for the players.

“All these players and these faces are becoming so popular that it really is about that as much as it as about recovery,” Collier said, noting how last season Brittney Griner was harassed by what the WNBA called a “provocateur” while traveling commercial.

The WNBA already had announced plans to once again pay for charter flights for the entire playoffs as well as for back-to-back games during the upcoming season. The league introduced that program last year, spending about $4 million on charter flights. Engelbert said at the time the league needed to be in the right financial position to do full-time charter flights.

The WNBA has never been more popular thanks to rookies like Clark, who helped the NCAA reach its best viewership in history for women’s basketball, with nearly 19 million fans watching the title game, along with Angel Reese who went to the Met Gala on Monday night and Cameron Brink.

Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said it's not business as usual anymore: It's time for the league, franchises and women’s sports to be innovative.

“We’ve had moments in the league," Reeve said, calling the current momentum a tsunami. "But this is clearly a movement. And if you think it’s not, you’re going to get left behind.”

Clark attracted attention walking through the airport with her new Indiana Fever teammates for a preseason game with the Dallas Wings last week. That exhibition sold out with fans lined up eager to get inside.

WNBA teams also have been moving games against Clark and Indiana to bigger arenas because of increased demand. The defending champion Las Vegas Aces became the first WNBA team to sell out allotted season tickets back in March after leading the league in attendance in 2023.

Flights have been an ongoing issue for the WNBA that only increased last year when the league began working with the Phoenix Mercury and Griner after the All-Star center's 10-month detainment in Russia.

The league hadn't allowed teams to use charter flights except for when they had back-to-back games.

That forced players like Breanna Stewart, the 6-foot-4 forward for the New York Liberty, to squeeze past fellow travelers on commercial flights to fit into her assigned window seat. WNBA players also had to not only retrieve their own luggage but endure travel days that could stretch 13 hours with delays.

Charter flights will allow WNBA players to go through private air terminals straight to buses or their own cars when returning home. Avoiding layovers also will help with recovery between games, which is even more crucial with this season's schedule around the Olympics.

WNBA coaches and players were waiting Tuesday for details about the charter flights.

Stewart spoke to reporters via Zoom just before the commissioner spoke in New York. Stewart shared on social media an airplane emoji with a question mark to the attention of the WNBA's account.

Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon, whose Aces already had security in place to protect players, knows what will make everyone ecstatic.

“Everybody's very happy they're not going to have to stand in security lines as much, or as long,” Hammon said.

Two-time WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson, who now has an endorsement deal with Gatorade, said the growth of the women's game has been a “whirlwind" that was just a matter of time. Wilson said it's up to the players and teams to put the best product on the court with so many people watching now.

“That’s what continues to bring more eyes and more people and more investors, and then we end up with charter flights, and then things are going off and people are spinning off, and now we’re having a great time,” Wilson said.

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

FILE -Leo Stevens, a baggage handler at Harry Reid International Airport, helps move bags belonging to the New York Liberty WNBA basketball team, Wednesday, June 28, 2023, in Las Vegas. The wait for full-time charter flights for WNBA teams finally is over with commissioner Cathy Engelbert announcing the league’s plans to start the program this season, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

FILE -Baggage handlers and New York Liberty WNBA basketball team load bags onto buses at Harry Reid International Airport, Wednesday, June 28, 2023, in Las Vegas. The wait for full-time charter flights for WNBA teams finally is over with commissioner Cathy Engelbert announcing the league’s plans to start the program this season, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

FILE -New York Liberty basketball player Sabrina Ionescu, center, waits to go through the security line with the team's manager of basketball operations Micaela Reese behind her at Bradley Airport in Hartford, Conn., Wednesday, June 25, 2023. The wait for full-time charter flights for WNBA teams finally is over with commissioner Cathy Engelbert announcing the league’s plans to start the program this season, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. . (AP Photo/Doug Feinberg, File)

FILE - Players and staff of the New York Liberty WNBA basketball team wait to board buses at Harry Reid International Airport, Wednesday, June 28, 2023, in Las Vegas. The wait for full-time charter flights for WNBA teams finally is over with commissioner Cathy Engelbert announcing the league’s plans to start the program this season, Tuesday, May 7, 2024. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

FILE - Iowa's Caitlin Clark, left, poses for a photo with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, right, after being selected first overall by the Indiana Fever during the first round of the WNBA basketball draft, April 15, 2024, in New York. The wait for full-time charter flights for WNBA teams finally is over with commissioner Engelbert announcing Tuesday, May 7, the league's plans to start the program this season. (AP Photo/Adam Hunger, File)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — At least 10 people were reported killed in attacks in Ukraine’s war-ravaged northeast on Sunday as Russia pushed ahead with its renewed offensive.

In the Kharkiv region, the focus of the offensive, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said five people were killed and 16 wounded in a Russian strike on the outskirts of the regional capital, also called Kharkiv.

He added that five more people were killed and nine wounded in an attack on the region’s Kupiansk district, southeast of the regional capital.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that its forces in the area were “continuing to advance into the depths of the enemy’s defense.” Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia had stepped up its attacks around Kharkiv and that the situation was “dynamic.”

Russia launched an offensive in the Kharkiv region late last week, significantly adding to the pressure on Ukraine’s outnumbered and outgunned forces which are waiting for delayed deliveries of crucial weapons and ammunition from Western partners. Ukraine’s overstretched forces are trying to slow Russia on the new front by using bomb-laden drones to destroy military vehicles.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday during a visit to China that Moscow’s offensive in the Kharkiv region aims to create a buffer zone but that there are no plans to capture the city.

Meanwhile, Ukraine and Russia continued to exchange drone attacks.

Ukrainian air force officials said Sunday morning that air defenses shot down all 37 Russian drones launched against the country overnight.

In Russia, Russian air defenses shot down 57 Ukrainian drones over the southern Krasnodar region overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Local military officials said drone debris hit an oil refinery in the town of Slavyansk-on-Kuban, but there was no fire or damage. News outlet Astra published videos appearing to show an explosion at the refinery as it was hit by a drone. The videos could not be independently verified.

Nine long-range ballistic missiles and a drone were destroyed over the Russia-occupied Crimean Peninsula, following Friday morning’s massive Ukrainian drone attack that cut off power in the city of Sevastopol.

A further three drones were shot down over the Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine. According to regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov, a church roof was set on fire by falling drone debris, but there were no casualties.

The Russian-installed governor of Ukraine’s partially occupied Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said that one person died and 16 were wounded when a Ukrainian drone hit a minibus on Sunday morning.

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Morton reported from London.

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Follow AP’s coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Emergency Situations Minister Alexander Kurenkov and Natural Resources Minister Alexander Kozlov during their meeting at the Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, May 18, 2024. (Alexander Kazakov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

Ukrainian police officers look for fragments of a glide bomb in front of damaged house after a Russian airstrike on a residential neighbourhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, May 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

A Ukrainian police officer and war crime prosecutor inspect fragments of a glide bomb in front of damaged house, after a Russian airstrike on a residential neighbourhood in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Saturday, May 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)