Billionaire Mark Cuban Jets Through Lake Of The Ozarks

A few days after Blake Shelton enjoyed cruising Lake of the Ozarks hotspots, Dallas Mavericks owner, Shark Tank celebrity, and billionaire investor Mark Cuban stopped through the Lake of the Ozarks in a huge private jet on Thursday.

The jet with Cuban aboard landed at Lee C. Fine (AIZ) airport — about 15 minutes from the lakefront cities of Osage Beach and Lake Ozark — on Thursday. An airport staffer said they chatted with Cuban after he disembarked, but it didn't look like he was here to stay this time: he hopped back aboard and departed.

The jet Cuban arrived in was a Bombardier BD-700 Global Express. Cuban has owned multiple jets, according to online sources, including a Gulfstream and a 757 he bought for the Dallas Mavericks.

Voted the most popular recreational lake in the nation in 2015 and the best recreational lake for water sports in 2023, Lake of the Ozarks draws an enormous number and variety of visitors to its 1,150 miles of shoreline every summer — celebrities and non-celebs. Unique because it is owned and operated by Ameren, the utility company that built Bagnell Dam, which impounds Osage River to create in the Lake, most of the Lake of the Ozarks shoreline is privately owned and is dotted with homes ranging from humble cabins to multi-million dollar sprawling mansions. The Lake's real estate market transactions topped the $1 billion mark the past two years, having received a major boost from the real estate boom of 2020 – 2022 and the new levels of national fame and awareness gained by national news coverage during Covid shutdowns as well as the award-winning Ozark series on Netflix.

Located right in the center of Missouri and on the edge of the Ozarks, Lake of the Ozarks is easily accessed by car from many Midwest cities: it’s a three-hour drive from St. Louis and Kansas City, a five-hour drive from Des Moines, a six-hour drive from Lincoln, Neb., and a seven-hour drive from Chicago.

There is currently no commercial air service to the lake (Ozark Air flew a commercial route to the Lake for a brief stint in the 1980s), many private pilots and owners of private planes and jets regularly fly and out of the Lake area's four main airports. Corporate jets often cruise in and out of Lee C. Fine (AIZ) and Camdenton (KOZS) airports. Lee C. Fine's airstrip is 6,497 feet long and can accommodate many small to medium-sized jets and planes. The recently expanded Camdenton airport runway is 5,002 feet long and offers plenty of length for private jets, and just enough room for a 737 as well. The more centrally located Grand Glaize Airport (K15), and the heart of Osage Beach, accommodates a large amount of smaller plane traffic, and Eldon Model Air Park (H79) is a popular airstrip for hobby pilots in the area.

The Global 6000 requires 5,820 feet of runway (at sea level) for takeoff and so can only fly into Lee C. Fine.

Whether it's being part of a jet share program like Net Jet, or owning your own jet (or two), being a jet-setter ain't cheap. But when you're a billionaire, apparently it's worth it.

"It is obviously brutally expensive," Cuban told Men's Journal Health & Fitness, speaking of his aircraft purchase. "But time is the one asset we simply don’t own. It saves me hours and hours."

The Global 6000 could hop from Dallas to Lake of the Ozarks in less than an hour (about 49 minutes, according to JetFinder.com) — while the rest of us would have to settle in for a 9-hour road trip between the two locations.

No matter how long it takes, as long as your sights are set on Lake of the Ozarks, the destination is worth the wait.