Come fly with me

[Guest Glenn]

Source: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/st ... 49,00.html

 

CARDBOARD box king Richard Pratt has one. Westfield boss Frank Lowy has two. Media magnate Kerry Stokes has one and so does James Packer.Actor Tom Cruise has reportedly purchased one of his three private jets for Katie Holmes, the latest Mrs C for $US20 million ($22.9 million). But that's small beer in comparison with actor John Travolta, who parks his Boeing 707, his Learjet and his three Gulfstreams in the hangar next to his house, on a private runway.

 

"In the States there are thousands of these things," says Gerard Frawley, the editor of Australian Aviation. "More favourable tax laws allow them to depreciate them more quickly than in Australia."

 

Not everyone has their own hangar, let alone a runway in the backyard. But in a world in which there are nearly 10 million millionaires, private jets remain the gold standard of obscene wealth.

 

You can get a smaller jet such as the Citation V11 (the model owned by chicken man Bob Ingham and by retired five-time 500cc motorcycle world champion Mick Doohan) for less than $5 million. But picking up your own personal Bombardier Global Express with the standard issue divan that folds out into a bed will set you back more than $US37 million.

 

For another $23 million or so, Donatella Versace will replace those boring old foldout divans with her trademark leather sofas.

 

Last year US and British fashion magazines reported TAG Aircraft Interiors had joined forces with Versace to customise the inside of the Boeing Business Jets and Airbus 318s being snapped up by Russian oligarchs and Saudi sheiks.

 

A Versace-clad 747 will set you back pound stg. 100 million ($243 million) but there isn't much of a market for that sort of ostentation in Australia, according to Alistair Creighton-Jones, the managing director of Execujet, one of the two companies handling sales of private jets in Australia.

 

In recent years Execujet has witnessed a resurgence of the business aviation industry. "The number of private jets in Australia has more than doubled since 2000," says Creighton-Jones.

 

There are now just over 100 registered in this country, but many more have been sold. No one can put a price on the industry. About 20 private jets are to be delivered during the next three years. "We have deliveries going out to 2013," he says.

 

The sharemarket may have wobbled a little recently but these shudders followed a golden boom, a 16-year period of continuous growth unprecedented in world history.

 

Last May Business Review Weekly reported that the average fortune of the wealthiest 200 people on its rich list had increased by about 25 per cent to $688million.

 

Entrepreneur Craig Gore, of the Wright Patton Shakespeare Financial Group, nailed the BRW Rich List this year, coming in at 199 out of 200. Gore has a Challenger 604, which has a price tag of about $US27 million. The son of Mike Gore, the property developer who was the personification of the white shoe brigade, Gore Jr also sells Australian wines in the US through his Aussie Vineyards label.

 

Eddy Groves, another Queenslander, is the owner of the childcare chain ABC Learning. Groves, whose business has expanded into the US, is the owner of a CJ3 Citation jet, a model also owned by Dick Smith, a business tool that can be picked up for about $US7million.. Whatever the uber-rich in Riyadh are doing, in Australia a private jet is considered a rational business expense for those who can afford it.

 

"Business leaders see private jets as an important business tool ... something that allows them to be totally productive every single hour of the day," says Douglas Hendry, general manager of fixed-base operations for Hawker Pacific, the other firm involved in the sale of private jets in Australia.

 

David Bell, executive director of the Australian Business Aircraft Association, says with more airlines operating no-frills services "you often can't fly business class to your destination so people choose to have their own aircraft, those who can afford it".

 

Of course there was a time when those who could afford it were all too flamboyant about it. That was in the so-called "greed is good" era of the 1980s. Back in that tasteless and tawdry era, when people paraded their wealth (as opposed to disguising its display as a business necessity), Australian heavyweights Alan Bond and John Elliott used their private planes as flying taxis. Elliott reportedly used his Boeing 737 to make sure he was back in Melbourne in time for a Carlton AFL game. Bond, soon to be more familiar with the inside of a jail cell, got about in his Boeing 727.

 

When Creighton-Jones talks about this excess, he sounds a little like a Victorian preacher. "Private jets in the early '80s were abused," he says, naming no names. "They were used not as business tools but more as luxury transport."

 

That helps explain why executives of what is solemnly called the business aviation industry are emphatic that these private planes with price tags upwards of $50 million are flying boardrooms rather than flying palaces.

 

"If you're looking at the lifestyle side, they're really buying more quality of life for Australia's top executives," says Creighton-Jones. "If they operate business aircraft they can have fewer executives doing more. One of our customers told us his aircraft buys him an extra 28 days a year."

 

Last year Frank Lowy's son David said: "You can't have a meeting in Qantas business class or even first class ... You can also leave a meeting when you're finished, rather than cut it short to catch a plane."

 

Size is also very important in this market. "If you're flying one of the smaller Citations you'd probably have to refuel at Adelaide if flying from Sydney to Perth," says Frawley. A larger Learjet would take you direct from Perth to Sydney without a refuelling stop. "But if you're in Mr Pratt's Global Express you can probably fly direct to Los Angeles."

 

Most of these private jets aren't restricted by curfews. Better still, flying your private plane means being able to use a private terminal. You don't spend two hours cooling your heels at the airport before international flights. Your chauffeur taxies to the facility owned by Hawker Pacific or the Universal Aviation terminal next door. Those who've used the Hawker Pacific include Sylvester Stallone, Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

 

"They don't go through the main terminal at all," says Hendry. "They land and taxi to our facility. One of the main reasons they use a private terminal like ours is because of the security. Security here is very tight. There's no queues. It's very quiet. It's private and confidential."

 

Soccer star David Beckham used the facilities when he flew into Sydney in November on a private jet owned by his sponsor, Motorola. Bill Gates came in on his jet - a Global Express - too, just one of the 16,000 private jets in the US.

 

Golfer Greg Norman's recent acrimonious divorce from Laura Andrassy involved unresolved tax issues relating to the ownership of Norman's Gulfstream jet. When he flew it into Sydney with girlfriend Chris Evert at the end of 2006, Norman naturally taxied in to the private terminal.

 

Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who own a Boeing 767 reportedly bought from Qantas, ended up in court last September when a designer who renovated their private party plane, as they allegedly called it, claimed he hadn't been paid. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the designer revealed that Page and Brin wanted to hang hammocks from the plane's ceiling and argued over the installation of a king-size bed.

 

While they were arguing over the bed, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the 13th richest person on earth, was adding another plane to his private fleet, shelling out more than the list price, $US320 million for his flying palace, an A380 double-decker superjumbo.

 

"And that's before he tricks it out with amenities that may include private bedrooms, dining rooms, conference rooms, a screening room, and a gym with a jacuzzi," according to CNN.

 

"That sort of interior is generally seen more in the Middle East and emerging markets such as Russia," says Creighton-Jones. "In Europe, North America, Australia, they really are restricted to corporate interiors."

[Tim E]

Some great aircraft flying around now aren't there..with some great interiors and facillities. Wouldn't mind a flight on John Travolta's 707 one day!

 

Hmmm.. Might have to buy a few acres(hectares) more to add to my 5 ares and make a private strip out here in Moyhu! Could always turf out the hay bales and turn the machinery shed into a hangar!

 

You aren't preparing a private airstrip with your new ride on mower by any chance Chainsaw? LOL Tim

 

 

[Guest g_i_jack029]

my old man says, if i buy a plane he'll make the airstrip.

 

so guess what all my money for working is going to!

 

it's going to be a 90-27 (east-west) strip. we've already got the spot planned out and i'm only 13!

 

But my old man knows i'm going to end up flying, all you will EVER hear me talking about is aviation, aviation this aviation that...and a bit more aviation

 

my room is packed with posters, posters everywhere, even on my work desk, posters cover it, remote control aeroplanes (electric, not using petrol just yet, need to get the hang of it first)

 

i build model aeroplanes, have about 15 of them, all i read about is aircraft from the Wright brothers in 1903 to the shuttle.

 

also another big hobbie is astronomy!!!! anyone else here interested in astronomy as well as aviation???

 

 

[Guest Glenn]

Only looking at and photographing the moon and looking for UFO's. Wouldn't getting into astrophotography though.

 

 

[Guest Chainsaw]

Well Tim,

 

Soon (if I split from Australia) I might have to claim compensation for all the airlines using my airspace *grin* That should be a nice earner. For those who don't know where I am...in between Katoomba and Bathurst and right under the flight path.

 

My place is a bit hilly for a strip. Might be suitable for an Osprey or a Harrier though LOL. I suppose I could also use a WW2 Feisler Storch.

 

 

[Tim E]

Fortuitous how we both ended up directly under flight paths Chainsaw..had a valuer out late last year and pointed that out as a feature that added value to my place..he just gave me a blank look ..poor ole fella!

 

Ang g_i_jack..that airstrip and plane would be great..something to aim for!

 

 

[Guest Chainsaw]

had a valuer out late last year and pointed that out as a feature that added value to my place..he just gave me a blank look ..poor ole fella!

Some people just don't get it do they? There are so many strange people out there. Really Tim, one of the core 'values' in life is plane spotting!!!

 

 

[Tim E]

Yep. Chainsaw...I think "The Castle" was spot on!..except we both get the benefits of the country air and views as well as the flight paths..all we need to add a bit is to get some of the big ones to do some low flyovers!

 

Maybe you might oblige in a few years g_i_jack? You never know where your love of planes will take you..some exciting places and adventures no doubt!

 

 

[Guest g_i_jack029]

Tim, i know where my love for flying is going to take me...TO THE SKIES, and anywhere up there i will be happy, in a piper warrior or a 787, i'll be happy, i'm sure of that