Iman Ghadzi buys a $30,000,000 private jet from Steve Varsano

Honestly, what would be the maximum, maximum budget that you would want to spend? 30 mil out of 148 models, there's been 27 of them that are priced over 30 million. So we just got rid of those. So we're going to start filtering out those airplanes that don't meet your need.

Normally there's four or five or six people in a section. So the question is, do you want to have a sleeping area plus two other sections? Do you want to be able to just have a four-seater, eight-seater, 12-seater? Needs to be eight minimum—eight minimum. Even like, for example, whenever we fly, even if it’s just three of us, I’ll still take an eight-seater. I think six-seaters is a little too cramped. Like, you know when you’re in a jet? It just feels like wafty. Like, it just feels like… and sometimes you get in a jet wafty. Like, sometimes what is wafty? You know when something just feels airy inside?

Yeah, no, listen, there’s no question about it. The biggest difference is the interior colors. If there's any kind of pattern, like a stripe or a plaid or something like that, it makes the airplane much smaller. And the size of the windows—funny as it sounds, some of the airplanes have much bigger windows than other ones. So if you’re sitting in the seat, you know, you have to sort of lean over, look down or something like—it's not like right where it’s supposed to be. Some of them have the big windows where you’re sitting down, it looks like you're looking out of a living room-sized window as you're flying. It brings in more light; it makes the airplane look bigger. Even though it’s perception, it’s an optical illusion, but it does make you feel like you’re in a smaller plane, and the longer you sit on an airplane, the smaller it gets.

Do you think you’re going to get bank financing? Correct?

Yeah, okay, so that’s a key question. Because a bank, if they’re going to loan money to you, usually what they say is the term of the loan plus the age of the airplane should not exceed 20 years. So meaning at the end of your loan, the airplane shouldn’t be more than 20 years old. Let’s keep 15 years in here. So if you got a five-year loan and 15 years old, so now we’re down to 58.

The next one is the maximum range—so the longest trip from A to B. Where do you think that would be? Five or six times a year, I’d say, bar this realis. I know maybe Dubai to London, so from Dubai, this is the range that you can go non-stop.

Okay, so anywhere in Europe, you can make it to South Africa, and you can make it to Singapore. However, this is with no wind. So now this was the winds last week at 35,000 ft; we’re going to put a 50-knot wind. Normally you could see that the winds around the world generally go from west to east. So even though they’re not a straight line, you have high pressure, low pressures, and things like that. Generally, you can see how the winds are always going this way, which means that you’re going to be able to fly faster when you’re going east, and you’re not going to be able to go as far on range, or it’s going to take you longer when you’re going west because the wind is pushing against you.

I do plan on returning back to LY in the next few years. I’m also just buying another house in Cape Town at the moment, so I’d like to see from London to Cape Town.

Okay, so from London, you won’t make Cape Town. I’ll tell you if you wanted to make Cape Town, you can do it for 30 million but you’re going to have to get the larger cabin airplane. What happens is you need more fuel to get that far, and the fuel is carried in the wing. So the bigger the wing, the more fuel you can carry. When you get a bigger wing, they put a bigger fuselage on it, so it’s sort of a domino effect.

One of the things people don't ever ask, which they absolutely should ask, is how much baggage can I put in my airplane? And I can tell you this is a nightmare question. Every time somebody has an airplane, they never ask this question, and this is the most important thing of every flight.

I guess just to understand what does this equate to in terms of let’s say suitcases? This amount is about 18 large suitcases, so it’s one per person. But how many of your friends—I won’t say, you know, male or female—but how many of your friends travel with one case?

Okay, I was just on a plane, a Global, the newest longest one. There were 12 passengers and 48 suitcases. So the last section of the airplane was just a luggage compartment. It was just piled up inside the plane.

Usually what we look at saying, if you want to buy, let’s say this airplane, you’re going to fly it, I don’t know, 350 hours a year, and you’re going to pay $450 a gallon. Okay, that airplane is going to cost about $3.6 million a year to run it, which is about $10,000 an hour.

There’s a surplus for Europe.

Yeah, because what usually happens is everything is more expensive in Europe than it is in America. Everything—everything except jet fuel. So everybody normally thinks because they drive cars, car fuel is so crazy priced here. It’s double, triple than it is in America. But jet fuel is actually cheaper in Europe than it is in America.

So we put a 25% fudge on it because just the currency, Euro control, and all the currency fluctuations and all that kind of stuff. We add 25% to an airplane that solely works out of Europe. But if you’re in the Middle East, it’s actually much less because fuel is so much cheaper, and in America, it’s so much cheaper. Europe itself is expensive, and Asia also.

Before, we used to go to Russia, landing in Moscow. They charge you for everything. It was so expensive just to land.

Is that because of the demand or just ‘cause they can?

'Cause they can! You had no choice; you had one airport to go to. They take out the trash from that plane, just literally take it out of your plane and put it in the truck to go throw away. They charge you $1,000 if you walk off the plane, and the front door of the terminal is there.

No, no, sorry, you can’t walk on the ramp; you have to get in the van and take over. It’s, you know, $500 a person.

They can, yeah, you know, and they figured, hey, the guy showed up with this $50 million plane; he’s not going to complain about an extra $10,000.

This is 100% scale of the Gulfstream 550. That’s the three sections I’m talking about. You’ve got the kitchen door here, the galley door, and most airplanes, the front section has these four single seats. This is really the normal setup. Again, the normal setup on most airplanes is a conference table of four and a credenza. Sometimes you get two chairs here; sometimes you get a couch. This is really a changeable spot.

This also pushes down; this becomes a bed, then there’s a divider here that makes this a separate bedroom. This back—sometimes there’s two chairs and two chairs; sometimes there’s the conference table; sometimes there’s one couch and two chairs. These two, the van, they come together, and it becomes a king-size bed. Then they have the bathroom here.

So if you really want to have your own bedroom, you close this door; you sleep here, you have your bathroom here, and if you have other guests, there’s up here. Also, the flight attendant can serve them because the galley is in the front. They make these with the galley in the back. About a third of these Gulfstreams have the galley in the back.

Really? Why is that?

If the galley is in the back, where's the restroom?

In the front! No, it’s behind the galley, and there’s another bathroom in the front. It’s a smaller bathroom for the crew, and for these people sitting up here, it's not as luxurious, but it's a bathroom up there.

What is the hour mark in terms of flight time where you're like, it might make sense to consider buying a jet? And what's the one where it's just absolutely—no matter how much money you have, it’s just stupid?

If you fly under 150 hours a year, it just doesn’t make sense—not financially. You know, go get a fractional; that’s the next best thing to owning an airplane.

So, for example, my line of thinking was, once I return back to London, at the moment I probably only fly 50 hours a year private. When I move back to London and there’s no more Emirates, I know that’ll go up.

Yeah, let's say, like, for example, even 100 hours. I guess now looking at this math— even at 100 hours, it seems like there’s no reality where it makes sense to buy a jet.

Absolutely not! Really? For 100 hours? Buying a fractional is the smarter thing to do.

By the way, whatever you think you’re going to use when you own a plane, you will do it 50 to 80% more when you have that airplane because it's just the ease of just calling up and saying, “I want to go tomorrow to such and such a place,” and we’ll come back tomorrow night.

If you were going to charter a plane or fly commercial, uh, how much is it going to cost me to do that?

You know, I got a commercial; I can’t come back. I got to do the next day. I’m not even going to go. You won’t exercise some of the opportunities as if you had your own airplane. With an airplane, you would just say, “Let’s go,” ‘cause again, that variable cost, the more you fly, the less it costs for the fix cost. So it keeps costing you less per hour the more you fly.

Pretty good incentive, yeah? And you could take three people from your office if you have to go, or friends, or whatever. It just makes it much more user-friendly.

Right. Well, thank you very much, Steve. Much appreciated. I’ll be waiting for that phone call when you say, “I’m ready.”

Give it two, three years, okay? I’m a patient guy; I’m not going anywhere. I don’t think.