Yahoo Finance How Much Jeff Bezos’ Private Jet Collection Costs Him
Jeff Bezos, the wealthy ex-CEO of Amazon and one of the richest people on the planet, has a fleet of three private jets, which he uses to travel the globe. Here’s how much each of them may have cost and how much he needs to pay to maintain them.
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Jeff Bezos’ Private Jet Fleet
Originally, Jeff Bezos jet of choice was a 1994 Dassault Falcon 900EX. He sold it in 2015 and replaced it with a Gulfstream G650ER. The G650ER is the long-range version of the G650, one of Gulfstream’s fastest jets, and is the choice of many other billionaires, including Bill Gates and Elon Musk. Bezos must have liked his G650ER, because he bought another one in 2019.
So why is the Gulfstream G650ER so popular with billionaires? Here are a few of its advantages:
Range: The G650ER has an extended range of up to 7,500 nautical miles, allowing for long-haul flights such as New York to Hong Kong without refueling.
Speed: It can reach a maximum operating speed of Mach 0.925, making it one of the fastest jets in the private aircraft sector.
Altitude: It can cruise at altitudes up to 51,000 feet, allowing it to fly above commercial traffic and weather systems for smoother rides.
Takeoff distance: Requires a takeoff distance of 6,299 feet at sea level, making it versatile enough to operate out of smaller, more exclusive airports.
Capacity: Typically configured to hold up to 19 passengers sitting, or 10 sleeping.
The purchase price for a new Gulfstream G650ER could be around $65 million or more, so the two jets may have cost Bezos a total of $130 million.
In addition to the two Gulfstream jets, Bezos is reported to also have a smaller 10-seat 2020 Pilatus PC-24. However, that jet has a much shorter range than the two G650ERs and costs, around $9 million. It does have one advantage over the Gulfstream jets — it can land on much shorter and unpaved runways, which may be a plus for Bezos when he visits some of his many properties in the United States.
Maintenance and Storage Costs
How much does Bezos need to spend on crewing, storing and maintaining his fleet? In 2015, he spent $5.5 million to buy a hangar at Boeing Field in Seattle, where he presumably stores his jets. The hangar, which was previously owned by Costco, measures nearly 18,600 square feet.
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Maintenance, fuel and crew costs for a jet like the Gulfstream G650ER add up quickly. If the jet operates for 400 hours a year, the annual costs are estimated to be around $3 million, or about $7,500 per hour of flight time. The costs include fuel, maintenance, engine performance and safety, insurance, jet management, crew salaries and other miscellaneous operating costs, according to estimates from private aviation service, Liberty Jet.
Since Bezos has two Gulfstream G650ERs, he could be paying as much as $6 million annually to maintain them. Of course, some of these costs, such as fuel, will vary based on how much a jet is used. Bezos has his jets on a “Limited Aircraft Data Displayed” list with the FAA, which limits some flight data from being tracked by the general public. Because of this, it can be difficult to determine exactly how much use either of them is getting.
Bezos’ smaller Pilatus PC-24 jet is estimated to have an annual cost of $1.5 million when used for 400 hours per year and just over $900,000 when used for 200 hours per year.
However, even if Bezos parked all three of his jets in his hangar and decided to fly commercial instead, they’d cost him a fixed annual expense of around $1.7 million. From a purely financial standpoint, chartering private planes instead of buying one can make more sense for individuals who do not fly more than 100 hours or so each year.
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