Deere & Co's aircraft returns to Moline after a Des Moines hop the week of Q2 earnings aftermath

Deere & Co's Gulfstream G280, tail N282JD, was tracked flying from Des Moines International Airport (KDSM) to Quad City International Airport (KMLI) on June 26, 2026, a short 31-minute hop at 21,000 feet covering 487 knots ground speed. The aircraft's home base is Moline, Illinois, where Deere & Co maintains its global headquarters.

If Deere & Co's leadership—including chairman and CEO John May—were aboard, the timing would align with the company's recent Q2 earnings release on May 21, which reported $1.773 billion in net income and a $272 million IEEPA tariff refund, per the company's earnings release [deere.com](https://www.deere.com/assets/pdfs/common/news/deere-2q26-earnings-release.pdf). The flight from Des Moines, a short hop over Iowa and Illinois, could reflect a trip to the company's manufacturing or administrative facilities in the region, as the firm recently announced new U.S. facilities in Indiana and North Carolina [prnewswire.com](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/john-deere-announces-major-expansion-with-two-new-us-facilities-coming-302671843.html).

The aircraft's recent movements show a pattern: N282JD shuttled between Moline and Des Moines on June 22 and June 23, with a longer jaunt to Saskatoon, Canada on June 17-18. The brief Des Moines roundtrip fits Deere & Co's standard operational rhythm—the G280 and the Citation X (N300JD) regularly move teams between the company's Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin plants, per Celebplanes tracking data.