Yesterday I flew back from a conference in Western USA courtesy of two kind participants who were also headed to NYC and gave us a ride on their plane. As we got to the airport I was shocked at the size of the personal aircraft in America. Private jets come in three categories, S, like mine a Citation Jet, M, like Hawkers, L like a Falcon 2000, XL like a GIV or GV and XXL like a Global Express. I had never seen such a gathering of XL and XXL jets as I saw at Haley in my life!! It is interesting to see that people with similar net worths in Asia rarely have jets at all and people with similar net worth in Europe have much smaller jets. To me it´s only partly a question of money. I already feel very bad about flying a private jet in spite of my investments in alternative energy but my jet spends in 3 hours of flying what the jets used in America spend during the first half hour of climb. Now it is true that America is very big and that many Americans used their jets to fly intercontinental distances. But there are smaller jets that can cross USA coast to coast. The ultrarich in America have the same fascination with size as the middle class except that the middle class shows it buying enormous and powerful cars and the ultrarich buying enormous and powerful jets. Lastly I have seen that in the States motorboats are much more common than sailboats and that is also not as extreme in Europe.

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Simon on July 17, 2007  · 

Well a M or XLL, what’s the difference?
Both uses alot of fuel.

I think what you’re saying, is like “I only wan’t a small beer, so stop serving anything larger!”.

I don’t know why Europe or Asia should set the standards. Maybe we should just get larger private planes?

You really show the anti-rich-american attitude alot in some of your blogposts, which is getting kind of annoying 🙂

3.0 rating

Nick on July 17, 2007  · 

This post is kind of ridiculous, Martin. You probably own a Citation jet, because you cannot afford a Global Express.
If you would be an environmentalist conscious, as you always proclaim, you wouldn’t use a private jet.

3.0 rating

Martin Varsavsky on July 17, 2007  · 

Simon,

What I say occasionally, Tom Friedman says every day. And so do other millions of Americans concerned about the environment.

3.0 rating

Martin Varsavsky on July 17, 2007  · 

Nick, do u drive the biggest car u can afford?

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