How far would you say you travel in a year? Just approximately? Do you take regular holidays? Do you go places in your car, and here we mean further than the mall? Do you travel in your car for more than 300-400 hours a year? Do you go on planes? More than once a year? More than twice? Do you travel on planes more than 300-400 hours a year? (If you work in the Airline industry and you are reading this, just hush. Your life is amazing and everyone is jealous of you).
Have you ever thought about owning a personal Jet?
Because according to those who sell personal jets, if you travel more than 300 hours a year by plane, you should get one. Their logic is, you don’t have to mix with the hoi palloi at a public airport, your flight will never be delayed and security will be a doddle. Plus, no one will lose your luggage. And, of course, you will have all the privacy you want (helloooo mile high club). The people who sell Gulf Streams and Learjets and Cessna’s and the like seriously think that, if you are already in the air anyway, you may as well do it in comfort. They suggest that if you DON’T quite make it into the 300 hour a year category, partial ownership is a smarter option.
Owning your own jet, unless you are a farmer in the middle of Australia, a mining magnate or a drug dealer, has always seemed to this humble writer to be something so outrageously outrageous as to be, well, quite frankly, a bit outrageous.
Many people DO own their own jet, and good for them. A second hand Learjet built in 2008 will set you back about 3.5 million USD. That’s 3,500,000 dollar bills. Second hand. Some people reading this will think “That’s a bargain, I should snap that up immediately” and to you I say,” We should have lunch”. But for a lot of people, that is a LOT of money to spend on something that other people might have had sex in. Or held meetings in. Or chopped up coke in. Or written bestselling love songs in. Or whatever it is one does when one is bored at 45 000 ft.
Private jets fly higher than commercial jets do to keep them out of the way and to make the flight smoother. Nothing ruins a day faster than a new pair of Chino’s covered in Moet caused by turbulence.
Of course, you can hire a jet just as you would hire a car.
25 hours of flying time in a smallish jet with a range of about 2500 nautical miles costs around 150,000 USD. But that includes a nice smelling wet towel on departure.
If you need something bigger, maybe a wide bodied Boeing business jet is the one for you. They can fly around the planet just like the ones that you see in the sky every day and can be hired for a cool 245,000 USD per flying hour.
Cheaper then to buy one.
A Boeing 777, 787 or 747 can be purchased directly from Boeing and will be delivered unfurnished, so individual tastes can be accommodated. The Sultan of Brunei has one, and he spent 110 million USD on the interiors. The plane itself only cost 100 Million USD, but he wanted to make it special. I’m sure at the time that made sense to him, but where I’m from, we call that over capitalizing. Not that I’m criticizing. Everyone knows that gold warms to the touch and no one wants a cold bum when you’re sitting on the loo, even Sultans. Especially Sultans!! This big bad boy (and here we are referring to the jets) can fly anywhere between 9000 and 11,000 nautical miles at a time. Far enough to not have to stop and refuel at every Luxury Jet truck stop along the way.
So back to the questions at the top. How far do you travel every year, and do you need to bite the bullet and buy a plane? Or two? Or more? And my next question is, when are you free for lunch?
#PRIVATEJET #AEROPLANES #AIRLINETRAVEL
