The Economics of Private Jets

Animation by Josh Sherrington
Thumbnail by Simon Buckmaster

Special thanks to Patreon supporters Adam Chelminski, Arkadiy Kulev, Charles Zilinski, Chris Allen, Connor J Smith, Daddy Donald, Etienne Dechamps, Eyal Matsliah, Hank Green, John & Becki Johnston, Kyle, MyNameIsKir, Plinio Correa, Qui Le, Remi_Scarlet, Tom Dooner, Tyler Hamm, and Vaughn Mudrick

Select footage courtesy the AP Archive

References:

[Wendoverproductions]

If you missed all the different announcements, I started a new podcast called Extremities about a month ago. It's all about how and why the world's most isolated human settlements exist, with the first season being on Pitcairn--the 50 person British territory in the South Pacific.

[bob]

So all those Instagram models on private jets are actually Walmart management... well I'll be damned.

[gotham]

Many big corporations have a policy of not allowing multiple upper management people on the same flight, to reduce the hit in case of an accident. A friend in upper management at Snap-On Tools says it's the policy there. A 1993 corporate jet crash took out the president and upper management of In N Out Burger, and almost sunk the company.

[protonneutron]

Yes, I remember the first time my CEO got really mad at me. I had taken an economy seat with a 4 hour layover instead of spending $5, 000 more for a direct flight that only had first class seats available. I was young and he had to remind me that my time was far more valuable to the company that the $5k used for the first class ticket so I could arrive a half day earlier.

[stapler]

Hi Wendover!! I want to request a video about how airline alliances work. (Star Alliance, SkyTeam and Oneworld)

[fruitfly]

Imagine spending all that money to just go to Walmart! Jeez.

[ZK-APA]

This video was made possible using curiosity stream.


But this channel was made possible with anything related to planes ✈️

[floridaboy]

I work as a flight instructor at a smaller airport in Florida. When I got hired I was amazed at the amount of private jet and turboprop jet traffic that comes through on a regular basis. Even random companies like miraclegro, belk and bread companies have jets.

[AmericaWest]

I work at an FBO (fixed based operator, which provides services for private jets and small aircraft), and let me tell you, I've never seen more personal and family travel on private jets than this year! Private charter traffic is up nearly 40% compared to before the pandemic because more people are realizing that flying with private charters saves much more time compared to going on commercial aircraft (and companies are figuring out ways to lower charter costs). The private charter industry is in its golden age right now, thanks to the pandemic.

[karimhage]

The economics of running a youtube channel like wendover productions. PLEASE!

[ssun]

Up next the economics of headquartering your multinational corporation in Bentonville

[chucksavall]

I flew corporate jets for several years. We did some crazy and ridiculous things just because we could. I remember flying veal sausages into the Indy500 on race day, because the corporate suite had run out, using a helicopter to land on the infield during the race. Or flying a sail to a sailboat race because one had been damaged. We often flew 2 Lear-jets, 5 minutes apart, to the same destination, because of company policy that 2 VIPs could not fly on the same plane. I even remember flying an empty Lear-jet to the east coast to pick up a piece of furniture, because the CEO was on the BOD of the local museum. Amazing how hard some people work to make money just so they can waste it.

[brad]

A buddy of mine took me on a ski trip on his private jet. Is was the most amazing trip ever. To be able to pull up 15 feet away from the plane and then board with no wait was amazing. We landed and his rental car was waiting 20 feet from the plane. Soooo cool!

[Drakotar]

It may be more expensive, but short haul it makes sense.

I was fortunate to fly private once with a friend to Mallorca, the turn around at the airport was what matters, in and out in 30 minutes. Time is the only thing that’s priceless to the wealthy.

[EugeneAyindolmah]

Airplanes: Exists
Wendover: Write that down!

[nathanbanks]

Sam Walton preferred smaller propeller planes so he could fly low, examine traffic, and figure out where to buy land for the next Walmart.

[someusername]

I work for a company with a pretty large corporate fleet that I've flown on a bunch of times. I think corporate did the math and found it's basically a wash in terms of cost where you can take day trips vs. having overnight with hotel and rental car, but the upside is you can show up 5 minutes before the flight time and go....no TSA or whatever.

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

It's a great day when Wendover posts another vid....about planes

[JustOneAsbesto]

It's also easy to be cost effective when you have 10 kilos of coke on board.

[CraveThatCoin]

One thing missed is a employee will add more value to a company than their salary. If an employee is being paid $100k/year they may be adding easily $200k+ to the company. That makes their time even more valuable and any days waisted would impact the company negatively.