Cisco Systems flies to Montana the same week as massive fiber deployment

Cisco Systems flew from Seymour Municipal Airport to a private airstrip near Billings, Montana, on June 3, a 2-hour and 9-minute hop aboard its Bombardier Global 6000, tail N600NB. The flight landed just after 5:44 PM local time, capping a series of trips between Texas and Montana that began May 30.

The same week, Montana's state broadband office announced it had awarded Cisco Systems a contract to supply routing and security equipment for a $200 million fiber-to-the-home project covering sparsely populated counties in the eastern part of the state, per the Billings Gazette on June 2. Cisco's networking hardware will underpin the buildout, which aims to connect roughly 12,000 unserved households by 2028.

Cisco Systems has been shuttling executives between Abilene, Texas, and Billings repeatedly in recent days — eight flights between May 30 and June 3 — suggesting hands-on meetings with local officials or engineering teams on site. The company's explicit 'no perks' policy means the flights were almost certainly tied to the project, not personal recreation.