Thirty Amazing Facts About Private Jets
President Obama recently called for the elimination of “tax breaks for private jet owners,” painting anyone who doesn’t cram themselves into 28 inches of economy legroom as a fat-cat wastrel. But owners of business aircraft swear to their utility. Private jets (which are powered by gas turbine engines, as opposed to pistons or props) utilize a network of more than 5,000 airports in the U.S, while commercial airlines only reach 550. The business aviation industry employs 1.2 million Americans and generates $150 billion in annual economic activity. Best of all: You don’t have to take your shoes off at the airport.
✈ There were 672 new private jets sold in 2012, a sales dip of 3.4% from 2011. Overall, 11,261 private jets were registered for use in the United States, and 7,997 in the rest of the world.
Source: General Aviation Manufacturers Association
✈ The US makes up 49.7% of the world market for private jets; Europe 20.8%; Asia Pacific 11.8%; Latin and South America 11.6%; Africa and the Middle East: 6.1%.
Source: General Aviation Manufacturers Association
✈Average Jet Charter Rates (Per Hour)
The Hawker 800XPR (Image: Hawker Beechcraft)
| Gulfstream 550 | $8,640 |
| Global Express/XRS | $8,045 |
| Falcon 7X | $7,865 |
| Falcon 900 | $6,075 |
| Gulfstream IV | $5,884 |
| Challenger 604 | $5,053 |
| Citation X | $4,533 |
| Hawker 800 | $3,582 |
| Citation Excel/XLS | $3,388 |
| Learjet 60 | $3,347 |
| Citation Mustang | $1,674 |
Source: Avinode Marketplace
✈ Cost to charter a Gulfstream V for a weekend trip from New York City to San Francisco: $106,711.17
(Friday evening to Sunday evening, all costs including helicopter transportation to and from airport, two full-time captains, a flight attendant, crew per diems, landing, ramp, parking, fuel surcharge, taxes, etc)
Source: Talon Air, Inc
✈ The biggest event for private jet travel is the Super Bowl; this year, over six hundred private aircraft flew into New Orleans Lakefront Airport for Super Bowl XLVII (typical weekend traffic at the airport is just 125 landings). Other top events include the Masters Golf Tournament and Art Basel Miami Beach.
Source: NetJets Inc.
✈ The average cost to charter a Gulfstream 550 for a single hour is $8,640. That’s enough money to buy 74 round-trip tickets for travel between New York and Washington, D.C on Jet Blue.
Source: Avinode Marketplace, JetBlue Airways
Van Nuys Airport (Photo: Los Angeles World Airports)
✈ Over 259,000 private takeoffs and landings occurred at Van Nuys airport in 2012, making it the busiest general aviation airport in the world. Traffic was down 13.9% from a year earlier.
Source: Los Angeles World Airports
✈ One of the very first business aircraft was Smiling Thru, a Travel Air Model 6000-B monoplane built by H. L. Ogg, president of the Automatic Washer Company of Newton, Iowa. The interior contained seating for five, a room with demo washing machines, and a typing table. Ogg called it his “private air office.”
Source: National Air and Space Museum
✈ The most popular model of private jet in the U.S. is the Cessna Citation Excel, also known as the Citation XLS and XLS+. This medium-sized business jet took off on 144,302 flights in 2012, at an average charter rate of $3,388 per hour.
Source: Avinode Marketplace, FAA ASDI
Source: DealBook/New York Times
The Bombardier Global 8000 (Image: Bombardier Inc.)
✈ Bombardier’s Global 8000, one of the longest range private jets on the market, can go 7,900 nautical miles on a single tank of gas, flying at Mach 0.85 with 8 passengers. With a fuel capacity of 48,950 lbs, it costs approximately $53,000 to fill the tank.
Source: Signature Flight Support, Bombardier
✈ Warren Buffett was a long-time critic of private air travel before Berkshire Hathaway bought its first corporate jet (for $850,000, used) in 1986. When the company sold it and bought a nicer model in 1989 (for $6.7 million), Buffett summarized his attitude toward the jet with a prayer attributed to St. Augustine: “Help me, Oh Lord, to become chaste – but not yet.” He named the plane “The Indefensible.” Within a few years, Buffet was so enamored of the plane that he told Berkshire shareholders he found the thought of retiring it ” more revolting than the thought of retiring the Chairman,” and joked that he wished to be buried with the plane. In 1998, Berkshire Hathaway acquired fractional jet-ownership company NetJets Inc. for $725 million.
Source: Berkshire Hathaway
John Travolta (Image: Qantas Airlines)
✈ Celebrities who have their own jets include Oprah Winfrey (Bombardier Global Express XRS), Jackie Chan (Embraer Legacy 650), and Jay-Z (Bombardier Challenger 850). Some celebs even fly the plane themselves, like Tom Cruise (Gulfstream IV), Jimmy Buffett (Dassault Falcon 900), and John Travolta. Travolta owns eleven jets, including a Boeing 707, and is the official “Ambassador-at-Large” for Qantas Airlines.
Source: Embraer SA, Qantas Airlines
✈ In 2012, NetJets logged more than 300,000 flight hours across its fleet –more than 35 years in the air. The total distance logged, 110,585,785 nautical miles, is equivalent to 266.2 round trips to the moon.
Source: NetJets Inc.
Source: Facebook [1],[2]
✈ “That is what makes me feel successful. Of all the wonderful things that have happened, including getting a doctorate, an honorary doctorate from Duke, what really makes me feel successful is being able to use my life in service to someone else’s… and it is really fantastic to have your own jet, and anybody who says it isn’t is lying to you. That jet thing is really good.”
-Oprah Winfrey, in a May 10, 2009 commencement address at Duke University.
Source: Duke University
✈ The maximum headroom on a Dassault Falcon 7X is six feet, two inches. That means the tallest player in the NBA, Oklahoma City Thunder center Hasheem Thabeet, is about thirteen inches too tall — he’ll have to bend over as he walks down the aisle of the plane.
Source: Dassault Aviation, National Basketball Association
✈ Thirty percent of current private jet owners say they’ll purchase a new jet in the next five years. Over 10,000 new business jets are expected to be delivered in the next ten years, at a cumulative value of $250 billion.
Source: Honeywell Global Forecast
✈ Celebrities who died in private jet crashes include pro golfer Payne Stewart, British race car driver David Leslie, Mexican-American singer Jenni Rivera, and all eight members of the Brazilian rock group Mamonas Assassinas.
Source: The New York Times, BBC News, Reuters, Associated Press
Source: National Transportation Safety Board, International Business Aviation Council Safety Brief
A Learjet 23 on display at the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Center (Image: National Air and Space Museum)
✈ Bill Lear flew the first Learjet (a twin-engine jet based on a Swiss military design) on October 7th, 1963. Known as a Learjet 23, it became the first universally known business jet. When his company was acquired by Gates Rubber Co. four years later, Lear’s stock was worth over $27 million.
Source: Bombardier Business Aircraft
✈ Amount NetJets spent in 2012 to acquire 425 jets, the largest deal in private aviation history: $9.6 billion
Source: NetJets Inc.
✈ Available baggage space in a Gulfstream G550: 226 cubic ft
Available baggage space in a 2013 Toyota Camry sedan: 15 cubic ft
Available baggage space on a Delta Airlines domestic economy ticket, without incurring fees: 3 cubic ft
Source: Gulfstream Aerospace, Toyota Motors Company, , Delta Air Lines
✈ Between 2002 and 2012, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration seized 44 private jets.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
✈ In order to charter a Gulfstream 550 for a single hour, you’d need to work 1,192 hours at the Federal minimum wage of $7.25.
Source: Avinode Marketplace, U.S. Department of Labor
✈ In 2012, fractional ownership and jet rental company NetJets logged more than 300,000 flight hours across its fleet — more than 35 years in the air. The total distance logged, 110,585,785 nautical miles, is equivalent to 266.2 round trips to the moon.
Source: NetJets Inc.
Source: The Official Trump YouTube Channel
The Cessna Citation Sovereign (Image: Cessna Aircraft Company)
✈ If you removed the seats, you could fit approximately 270 soccer balls into the cabin of a Citation Sovereign jet.
Source: Cessna Aircraft Company
✈ Several private jets are on view at the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum’s Udvar-Hazy Center, including the first Learjet 23 and a Dassault Falcon 20, which is the jet most used extensively by FedEx in the early days of the company.
Source: National Air & Space Museum
✈ Top airport for international departures in the United States: Teterboro Airport, New Jersey
Top airport for international departures in Europe: Vnukovo International Airport, Russia
Source: Avinode Marketplace
Samantha Sharf contributed reporting to this story.