Google's Gulfstream G550 N904G lands in Tokyo after 11-hour flight

Google's Gulfstream G550, tail number N904G, flew from Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport (KSJC) to Narita International Airport (RJAA) in Japan on Monday, November 2, 2026. The flight departed at 15:34 UTC and landed at 02:45 UTC. It spent 11 hours and 11 minutes in the air.

The great-circle distance for the trip was 4,468 nautical miles, or 5,142 miles. The aircraft reached a top altitude of 47,025 feet and a top ground speed of 491 knots. Its average ground speed was 399 knots. Celebplanes estimates the flight burned about 4,588 US gallons of fuel and produced about 44,073 kilograms of CO2, equivalent to driving a car 109,092 miles. The Gulfstream G550 has a range of 6,750 nautical miles, a top speed of Mach 0.885, and a service ceiling of 51,000 feet. It typically seats 16 passengers.

This was the first landing by any of Google's two Gulfstream G550s at Narita in the tracking window from May 21 to October 9, 2026. Google's home base is Moffett Federal Airfield (KNUQ) in Mountain View, California. The company's usual destinations include Teterboro, Santa Barbara, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, London Stansted, and Shannon. Before this flight, N904G had been on the ground for about 89 days, since its last tracked landing on August 6, 2026, at San Jose. In the 30 days before this flight, Google's two aircraft flew 2 flights totaling 10.9 hours.

Google is one of the world's largest tech companies, with a market cap over $2 trillion. Its CEO is Sundar Pichai. The company's headquarters is at the Googleplex in Mountain View. Google's subsidiary Planetary Ventures leases NASA's Moffett Federal Airfield for $1.16 billion over 60 years. The company operates two Gulfstream G550s, N10XG and N904G. A 2012 NBC Bay Area investigation found that from 2007 to 2012, only about 5 percent of flights by Google-related aircraft out of Moffett were science missions, despite a NASA agreement requiring scientific equipment.

Narita International Airport serves the Tokyo area, a major hub for business and technology. Google has a large office in Tokyo, and the company frequently sends executives to Japan for meetings and partnerships. The flight from San Jose to Tokyo is a common route for tech companies with operations in both countries.

The flight used 66 percent of the aircraft's range. The departure runway at San Jose is 11,000 feet long. The arrival runway at Narita is 13,123 feet long. The distance from Google's home base at Moffett Federal Airfield to Narita is 4,462 nautical miles.

The most common destinations were San Jose with 13 landings, Stockton with 3 landings, and London Stansted with 2 landings. The longest leg in that window was San Jose to Boston on October 7, 2026, covering 2,330 nautical miles.

Before this flight, Google's other Gulfstream G550, N10XG, flew from Boston to San Jose on October 9, 2026, in 6 hours and 3 minutes. That aircraft also flew San Jose to Boston on October 7, Leadville to San Jose on September 27, and Teterboro to Aspen on September 24.

The flight landed safely at Narita at 02:45 UTC. Celebplanes continues to track Google's aircraft movements.