00:00Today on Forbes, the one luxury these billionaires say they can't live without.
00:07Billionaires have been known to indulge in just about every luxury imaginable.
00:11Picassos, diamonds, private concerts by A-list pop stars, super yachts with cinemas, spas and
00:18submarines, trips to space. Because there's almost nothing a three-comma fortune can't buy,
00:24billionaires are often accustomed to owning the best of the best of whatever they want.
00:29But Forbes wanted to know what indulgence they view as absolutely essential. So this winter,
00:34we surveyed many of the world's billionaires on the one luxury they can't live without,
00:38and 40 billionaires responded. The most common answer by far was a private jet,
00:44which a dozen respondents chose. After that, three listed their phones. A couple shout-outs apiece
00:51went to prestige cars, second homes, and yes, air conditioning. And two listed their wives,
00:57Charles Koch, the chairman of Koch Inc., whose estimated net worth is $67.5 billion,
01:03wrote, quote, Liz for 57 years. Stephen Smith, founder of Canada's First National Financial,
01:11and whose net worth is $6 billion, said, hella skiing. One anonymous respondent,
01:17fittingly wrote, quote, privacy. Though 12 is a small sample, hundreds of other billionaires own
01:24private jets. So why do they put such a high premium on their planes? In most cases, it's about
01:30saving time. The process of traveling to a commercial airport, passing through security,
01:36boarding, and taxiing typically takes several hours, even without delays. A private jet, meanwhile,
01:42can be ready in minutes. Not only can those passengers just show up and go, but they also
01:48have far more options for where to take off and land. Texas, for example, has 389 public-use airports,
01:55according to its transportation department. Only 25 of those, 6%, are commercial airports.
02:03Billionaire David Hoffman, who invests in dozens of businesses from luxury transportation to real estate,
02:08says, quote, we have a large number of locations and it would be impossible to get to them without
02:13a private plane. Hoffman is based in Naples, Florida, but has entities across the country
02:19in places like San Diego, Minneapolis, Seattle, and St. Louis. Samir Mane, a retail and real estate
02:27entrepreneur, agrees and says, quote, I bought a jet because we don't have good flight connections to
02:32many of the countries where we operate. Mane, who is Albania's first billionaire, is based in
02:38Tirana. Visiting his retail outfits in Sarajevo takes 20 minutes via private jet, he says, but would
02:44require a full day if he flew commercially. He says, quote, if I were based in London, Frankfurt,
02:50or Vienna, I wouldn't need a jet since the flight connections from those cities are excellent.
02:56Hugh Chatham, VP of sales at plane brokerage CFS Jets, explains, quote,
03:01a lot of these companies would struggle to operate if they didn't have their executives getting in and
03:06out of meetings across the country on the same day. Or as real estate investor Larry Connor put it in
03:13his survey response, quote, it's not a luxury, it's a business tool. Four billionaires wrote that their
03:20private plane was the most expensive item they'd ever bought in answer to a separate survey question.
03:26Planes tend to depreciate 5 to 10 percent every year, says Chatham, but most prices in the resale
03:31market doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic and have stayed high since. Now, pre-owned jets can
03:38cost as little as $1 million for a small basic craft or as much as $75 million for one in the top
03:44tier, like Bombardier's Global 7500. New planes can go up to about $80 million for a business jet,
03:52though some billionaires have bought commercial-sized airliners that stretch even higher.
03:56The standard Global 7500 is a long-range jet that can handle non-stop flights across the world
04:03and includes a four-zone cabin, which means that passengers have separate spaces to work,
04:09eat, sleep, and lounge. Billionaire brothers Lorenzo and Frank Ferita each own one that they bought in
04:152020 and that are now worth $55 million a piece, Chatham estimates. For full coverage,
04:23check out Monica Hunter Hart's piece on Forbes.com. This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.
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