Why Starbucks is letting Brian Niccol use the company plane for more personal travel

Starbucks is getting CEO Brian Niccol to use the company jet for all his travels — and removing his quarter-million travel budget cap.

In a Monday filing, the Seattle-based coffee chain said that it was changing its agreement on how much Niccol could use the company’s private jet for his personal travel. And the main reason for this change is to ensure Niccol’s safety.

Before September, Niccol’s use of the Starbucks plane for non-work reasons was subject to an annual cap of $250,000, and if he exceeded that amount, he had to reimburse the company, the Monday filing wrote.

But after September, the board removed the $250,000 annual cap and replaced it with a “more frequent quarterly review of Mr. Niccol’s personal flights by the chair of the Compensation Committee,” per the filing. Starbucks has not imposed a new maximum spending limit.

“This change was driven by the security study’s recommendation that Mr. Niccol use Company aircraft for all air travel, including personal travel, and the Company’s ongoing monitoring of Mr. Niccol’s security situation,” the filing wrote.

A Starbucks spokesperson said the company’s board recently decided to enhance security measures for Niccol, following a review of threats and risks to the chief executive.

Following the review, the board has made it a requirement to use private aircraft for all his travels, the spokesperson added.

Last year, Starbucks was hiring for a pilot to fly its private Gulfstream jets. In the job listing, the company said it would pay the pilot a salary between $207,000 and $360,300.

The filing also wrote that Niccol was paid about $31 million in compensation in 2025, a drop from the $95.8 million he was paid in 2024. His 2024 compensation was boosted by $90.2 million in stock awards he received as part of his signing contract.

Niccol started at the company in September 2024, moving over from Chipotle. He has helmed the chain’s “Back to Starbucks” turnaround plan, an effort to turn around several quarters of poor results because of a declining customer experience.

His offer letter in August 2024 showed that Starbucks had permitted him to use the company jet to commute from his home in California to the company’s headquarters in Seattle. In July last year, Business Insider learnt that Starbucks had set up a satellite office close to Niccol’s residence in Newport Beach.