Air travel can truly be sweet — if you’ve got the bucks

By BENÉT WILSON
Regular readers know that in my day job, I cover business/corporate/private aviation — jets like the Gulfstream G-IV (one of my personal favorites).  Last week, I was in Geneva, Switzerland, to attend the 2010 European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE), which is a conference dedicated to this segment of the industry in this part of the world.

This conference includes what’s called a “static display,” where sellers and aircraft manufacturers can show off their aircraft.  What was really cool about this particular static display was it was right at Geneva International Airport, so I got to see a great mix of business and commercial aircraft all interacting in the same space.  You can see some of my pictures from EBACE at my Flickr account.

I got the chance to take an up-close-and-personal tour of a Boeing Business Jet, the private aviation version of the Boeing 737.  This particular jet was at EBACE because the owners were trying to sell it.  The previous owner was Boeing itself, which used the plane as transport for former Chairman and CEO Phil Condit from 2002 to 2005.  It was then leased to a Russian businessman, who returned it in November 2009. 

This aircraft makes first class on the best airline (in my opinion, Singapore Airlines) look like a seat on Ryanair.  Boeing  spent $37.5 million on the interior, which Mrs. Condit designed to look like a private English club, with lots of leather, dark colors and tapestries. 

There are two showers aboard, along with a stateroom with space for an office and has a pull-down bed.  There’s a complete kitchen and a crew rest area in the front of the plane.  The aircraft has 14 certified seats, but can seat 19.   In the rear stateroom, the bed can fold into the wall and more seats can be added.   And in the back, there’s a bedroom with a nice comfy double bed (it’s comfortable; I checked). There’s also a sitting room with a flat-screen TV, along with a conference room.

If you’re interested, the plane is selling for only $45 million.  The cost of a new  “green” aircraft — meaning completely stripped — is currently $53 million, and all aircraft are delivered green.  Then you’re going to spend, at a bare minimum, another $10 million to trick it out.  Right now, if you wanted to buy a green aircraft, the next slot available to do that is October 2012, and it will take at least a year to fit the interior.  So if you’re impatient and want to save some money, this aircraft might be ideal for you.

Amazingly, there are still plenty of people out there who would want this plane, even in the current economy. The current owner is hoping that someone from Russia, Eastern Europe or the Middle East will buy it.  And industry forecasts back that up, showing these three regions of the world targeted for growth in business jet sales.

All in all, it’s a nice way to fly.  And after that, it was really hard to be happy sitting in my Economy Comfort seat on KLM.  I’ll have a post on that experience later.

Text and photos by B. Wilson

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