Costco Wholesale lands in Flint the week of record Q3 earnings and May sales

Costco Wholesale flew a Gulfstream G280 (tail N84CW) from Dalton Airport in Michigan to Bishop International Airport in Flint on June 11, a flight of roughly 10 minutes covering just 35 nautical miles at a maximum altitude of 2,800 feet. The brief hop arrives the same week the company posted net sales of $24.01 billion for the retail month of May, a 14.5 percent increase from a year earlier, following third-quarter results that showed net income of $2.19 billion, per a filing with the SEC [sec.gov](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/909832/000090983226000046/costex9918-k52826.htm).

The trip comes during a busy reporting period for Costco Wholesale. On May 28 the Issaquah-based retailer announced third-quarter net sales rose 11.6 percent to $69.15 billion; the week after, on June 3, it reported May sales results, with CEO Ron Vachris highlighting record gas volumes and strong executive membership growth, according to a company investor update [investor.costco.com](https://investor.costco.com/news/news-details/2026/Costco-Wholesale-Corporation-Reports-May-Sales-Results/default.aspx). Board or management meetings related to these results, or site visits to the company's Michigan warehouse locations, are plausible reasons for a stop in the Flint area.

The flight is an outlier in Costco Wholesale’s recent pattern. The company’s Gulfstream fleet typically works longer legs from Boeing Field to hubs like Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Vancouver. A sub-50-mile repositioning hop suggests a ground meeting — perhaps at a distribution center or regional office — rather than a routine transit, and aligns with the flat, hands-on culture CEO Vachris has maintained since taking over in January 2024.