HIGH SOCIETY
High Society - Luxury Travel Magazine
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High Society | |||||
| By: Prue Rushton, Issue 26 - Autumn 2006 | |||||
| (Private Jets) | |||||
| BEYOND FIRST CLASS, PRIVATE JETS ARE ATTRACTING A NEW SET OF ADMIRERS IN SEARCH OF ESCAPE. | |||||
| With all-hours access to almost anywhere in the world, the lure of landing on some secluded airstrip can produce a powerful urge to holiday – especially when you get to choose who and what you have on board. Fast, convenient and ultra-stylish are all words that belong to the world of private jets. This is something businessmen have long understood. Countering booked planes and shoeless security queues, private jet travel has become an everyday let’s-get-it-done corporate device. But why remove all the fun? Now, wise to the wonders of being jet-lag free and in control of reaching one’s desired destination in a few hours, many are beginning a new trend – the private jetaway holiday trip. In New York, the annual question for many CEOs and their families is: go skiing in the Rockies or head south for the sun? Now they’re up for doing both, jetting in with their children to ski in Aspen, then a week later arriving in Cabo San Lucas in Mexico for all-over suntans and snorkelling. Only two hours away by jet, this cuts out the normal flight-crawl from ski field to LA airport to catch the transfer to Cabo. So popular is flying to Aspen for a skiing holiday, lore has it that it’s the one time of the year when New Yorkers face the ‘ritual humiliation’ of having their planes sized-up alongside each other in a scene that is equivalent to the parking lot on Oscar night in LA. Not that it seems to put anyone off – the popularity of jets during the recent ski season saw family pilots unable to secure landing spots and having to circle or divert to another airport. It seems to be the one snag in the otherwise seamless travel experience that private jets offer. It’s hard to beat driving up, hopping on, sitting down and popping a cork versus queuing, waiting and struggling with baggage. Best of all, you get to choose your own time and location. Size does matter when it comes to private jets, and there’s one for each kind of holiday. Small and sleek is great for short-haul private dalliances in difficult- to-land places. Not being able to stand up in the cabin seems a small price to pay. At the other end of the scale is the Boeing Business Jet (known simply as the BBJ), a 737 that’s received a nip and tuck to transform it into a long-range private jet with room to party for 18 friends. With three times more space than its competitors, it’s also regarded as the most luxurious of jets, with sofas to lounge in, a dining room and kitchen worth hiring Tetsuya for, a queen-size suite, two full-size showers, and a private office should work ever cross your mind during a 14- hour flight. While Greg Norman was quick to order a BBJ back in 1997, these days, you’re more likely to find his GV (Gulfstream V) cooling on the tarmac, much like Rupert’s when he’s not ferrying execs. The Gulfstream V has the same Sydney-LA appeal as the BBJ, only its gloss of dine/sleep/shower happens on a smaller scale. Reportedly, it’s the Cessna Citation range that seems to make it into the hangars of Australia’s leaders. In fact, Citations are among the top three best-selling business jets of all time. Exclusive, go-anywhere stand-by is the wildly attractive calling card of owning a private jet. However, buying one will relieve you of a few (to many) millions, depending on size. Add to that the headache of maintenance, staffing, regulations, plus a place to park – and it racks up. Unlike, say, real estate, renting can be better than owning. Investing in a private jet-away with good friends is not dissimilar to renting a house in Tuscany or Spain: you split the costs and share the fun. The options for those traveling between international cities are many. Aside from the regular charter-your-own, companies such as Marquis Jet Card, based in New York, now offer 25 flying hours from around $A157,000 (US$115,900), slipping in incentives such as its partnership with Exclusive Resorts, which gives its members access to multi-million-dollar luxury residences in 35 destinations around the world. All of which goes some way towards encouraging card-holders to neatly split jet hours between those bound for a boardroom and those bound for a beach or some other luxurious locale. Across the Atlantic, the London-based Jeffersons conjures up holiday packages designed to tempt even the most business-focused traveller into a European side trip. Only have one day? Not a problem. Hop onto a plane and tuck into Beluga and Bollinger as you slipstream towards Champagne for an exclusive tasting and lunch at the two- Michelin-starred Les Crayères. Gather together five of your friends and it’s only $A2,060 (£875), per person. Also big this season is a three-day stay in Lake Garda. Swoop down into Brescia and soon you can be sitting on the terrace of historic Villa Feltrinelli contemplating the same setting DH Lawrence wrote about and Winston Churchill painted. Note to self: next Euro season, pencil-in a weekend ski trip to St Moritz, where you can go from landing-strip to slopes in a matter of minutes. In Australia, where one insider mused he’d heard there are only 80 registered corporate jets compared to 80,000 in America, the options are geared more towards design-your-own jet-away. Execujet Australia focuses on business travel, but its ultra-long-range Global Express can whisk you and up to 12 friends from Melbourne to the Maldives in about 11 hours. Snow not worth bothering about in Australia? Its Learjet 45 can get you and up to seven friends to the slopes in Queenstown in just 2 hours. In Victoria, Shortstop Jet Charter is making small merges into the jet holiday market with quick trip packages such as their Brown Brothers Winery jet-away, ex-Melbourne to Wangaratta on either a Lear 35 or Cessna Citation II for up to 9 passengers at $5950. Once inside the Brown Brothers Epicurian Centre it's all about the wine and the food until you're back on the jet. Other companies such as Adagold Aviation actively encourage escapes to Hayman or Hotham, or even the Red Centre. In conjunction with companies such as Voyages, you can plan your own end-of-work-day flight to luxe destinations including El Questro, Wrotham Park, Lizard Island or Bedarra via Dunk. A spokesperson for Pearl Aviation, owned by Paspaley Pearls, has her own favourite flight: Perth to Langkawi Island on a Falcon 900. In chartering your own, think between $2,000 and $11,000 per flying hour – depending on the size of the plane. If you request ahead for that special vintage wine you’ve been hankering for, or a freight issue of your favourite magazine, it will be there. “Anything, as long as it’s close to legal,” joked one operator. Which is, in a roundabout way, its own timely reminder. Organising a private jetaway does come with a warning: it can be addictive. | |||||
| Details: | |||||
| - Marquis Jet Card, www.marquisjet.com | |||||
| - Jeffersons, www.jeffersons.com | |||||
| - Adagold Aviation, www.adagold.com.au | |||||
| - NetJets, www.netjets.com | |||||
| - Executjet Australia, www.execujet.com.au. - Pearl Aviation, www.pearlav.com.au | |||||
| - Shortstop Jet, www.shortstop.com.au | |||||
| Buy from: - Pilatus, www.pilatus-aircraft.com | |||||
| - Simon Mathews, www.smaaviation.com.au | |||||
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