How to flaunt it with the Dubai jet set

The world of private jets is changing – but the clients are very much the same

December 13, 2024, 2:30 PM

Aircraft, Airplane, Transportation — Not your average cattle class: A few thousand dollars per hour will get you plush seats and plenty of leg room

I’ve flown in private jets just twice in my life, some years ago now.

The first occasion was as a member of a press trip to the USA organised by a French state-owned company which was privatising via a UK share listing and wanted to cultivate London business opinion.

What better way than to lush up a crowd of Fleet Street’s finest than a gigantic junket?

The trans-Atlantic leg was nice enough – Air France business class – but the real treat awaited us on arrival in New York, where the organisers had chartered the plane which pop diva Madonna used on her global tours, to fly us around the USA. All plush velvet and gold bathroom fittings, I recall.

The next time was also thanks to the generosity of a big European industrial giant – a well known German company that wanted to show off its capabilities in engineering and technology.

I, and some other freeloaders, travelled in the entourage of the chairman of the board, in a very swanky state-of-the-art jet – a Gulfstream if memory serves.

Just as we were about to take off on the return trip to London the plane was delayed for a very important passenger – a young woman who was introduced as the chairman’s PA. He was delighted she had managed to make the flight.

It came as little surprise when a few months later he quit his job after an investigation found him guilty of some internal peccadillo, unspecified.

I was thinking about these trips of yesteryear as I sat aboard a Bombardier Global 7500 aircraft at the Middle East Business Aviation Association’s airshow in Dubai last week, alongside Ian Moore, chief commercial officer of Vista, one of the biggest owners and operators of corporate jets in the world.

The fact that I could remember my previous private jet experience in such detail probably meant that I was not in Vista’s target market – the corporate movers and shakers, masters of the universe, and wealthy private entrepreneurs who simply have to be in London NOW!, hang the expense, and who use these limousines of the skies as ordinary mortals use Uber.

On the other hand, as Moore explained, my executive jet history had given me a knowledge of the two business models against which Vista had reacted – corporate ownership and charter or fractional ownership – to create its own very successful aviation strategy.

It works like this. For a one-off subscription fee (which varies according to level of service required but $100,000 will probably get you in) you gain access to the Vista “members’ fleet” of over 300 aircraft – though a lot more via the alliances Vista has with other private jet operators.

There’s service at your fingertips with the tap of an app

From there, it’s easy. Download the Vista app and you can order your plane with 24 hours notice to go anywhere in the world.

You pay by the hour flown, and this varies according to the type of jet you want to fly, your membership level, and what on-board services you require. Budget for $20,000 per hour of flight.

“Think of it as Uber with wings” says Moore, though there is nothing as Spartan as an Uber about the Global 7500 cabin. The plane – the star of the Vista fleet – is basically an airborne five-star hotel: bedroom, business meeting rooms, leisure and dining areas, all serviced by elite chefs (at a price) and slick cabin crew.

Tapping on the app, Youssef Mouallem, who runs the Middle East business from the global headquarters in Dubai, shows me availability in the next 24 hours for a plane to Riyadh (one of Vista’s most popular and profitable routes) for between $20,000 and $25,000.

The customers are 80 percent corporate, he explains, with the rest made up of government parties, wealthy private individuals, and even football teams on tour.

London is still the top global destination from Dubai, and other cities in Europe are also in demand, but Mouallem reports a “surge” in demand for Asian destinations.

Conscious of the backlash against private jet travel from the environmental lobby in recent years, Vista has been underlining its green credentials – use of sustainable aviation fuels, engine efficiency and emissions management, as well as a carbon offsetting program.

But I think that kind of misses the point, and maybe a change in global sentiment in the era of the arch-climate change denier President-elect Trump. Moore insists that Vista customers do care about the planet, especially the younger ones, but I’m sceptical.

Surely the modern masters of the universe, like German tycoons and American popstars before them, just want to flaunt it?

Frank Kane is Editor-at-Large of AGBI and an award-winning business journalist. He acts as a consultant to the Ministry of Energy of Saudi Arabia