How to sell a private jet!

8:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. Our business is truly international across every time zone. During those few hours I spend sleeping, deals, texts, emails, and calls build up, so I spend most of every morning catching up. Today we're on our way to the Air Charter Expo at Biggin Hill Airport in London.

It's a conference for those in the private aviation industry in the UK and Europe. We arrived at the conference and caught up with some old friends from Falcon. They then showed me a brand new Falcon 900 LX they had on display.

"This is our standard configuration, 14 passengers. You have the four Club here, dining table, and that changes also into a double bed. The table folds down, and the arm goes down."

"Yes, exactly. Both arms will go down, and the table will go down. Most of the cabinetry now, what is it just for storage? Because obviously in the old days, you needed it for all the older electronics that were big units. You don't have printers or anything anymore now, so you only have here storage space."

"Indeed, yeah. The padding here, it's of course not for take-off and landing, but that gives you additional seating around the table if you'd like to have five people around the table. Yeah, this area becomes much more of a hangar area during flight, so it really becomes a gathering place so that everybody can just sort of sit and talk. Sometimes people come in and eat here, and then after they're done, they come back and sit here. But also, the biggest thing is this goes down to be a double-sized bed, and so you actually have two sleeping areas here and two more here. And then we move on to the third lounge or aft lounge, which is here, composed of two three-seat sofas.

Sofas are berth B, so they come together to create a very large bed or two singles. This airplane, the 900 LX, has 4,700 nautical miles, so you can easily go from London to Miami. Yeah, to the East Coast.

This airplane obviously has been in production for a long time. Now, the newer model that's coming out, the Falcon 6X, which is an amazing improvement compared to what's out there today. Can you just give me some of the real pluses about what that airplane is and what the expectations are compared to what we have out in production today?"

"The 6X, as you notice, just got certified a couple weeks ago. Now, uh, it's our new baby. It's the biggest cross-section in the industry, so there is no aircraft that is a business airplane that has a bigger cross-section than the 6X. There is nothing taller or nothing wider. Of course, cabin comfort has been increased; bigger windows, closer together, very bright. Noise insulation is very high; it's as good as the ADEX, which is considered the quietest cabin. Technology-wise, we're deso, so there's a lot of technology into it. You have for F and I a new digital flight control system, or not new but improved compared to even the 7 or the 8X."

"The 6X, from what I'm understanding, is with the tallest cabin?"

"Yes, it has the equivalent of 6'6", which is amazing height because a lot of tall people that really always are ducking inside airplanes. It's a Falcony system, which makes your ability to be flexible in getting into mountainous terrains or really bad weather places with much more security and all around vision of what's going on even in the worst storms. And how dark it is, how quiet the airplane is, and the fuel efficiency and runway performance, which surpasses a lot of the technology of existing airplanes."

"Yes, exactly. The average range on the airplane is 5,500 nautical miles, so that gives you a London to L.A. cover more than 90% of all the trips that most corporate aircraft take. Yeah, it's an amazing airplane. I can't wait to get my first on it! We're very excited about the certification and the entry into service. That's going to be this... and really amazing. Thank you very much, FLY On One with Youk, you and dealer for showing us around!"

We then went outside to see more jets when I bumped into Andrea from Jet Aviation.

"We spoke about potential business opportunities. Tell you that, you know, we're having a relationship established with J... you know Jet Business, and we're just making this introduction. These ad hoc meetings we have with people from time to time, just bumping into people really sometimes develop into some opportunities that you never could plan for in advance."

Right after that I met this ambitious young man named Elliot.

"How you doing? You okay?"

"Yeah, fantastic. Nice to meet you."

"I wanted to speak to you. My company's spare parts B jets, and wanted to share some of his business ideas with me. If you have a business plan that you know you have put together and thought the thing out, I'm happy to sit down with you and look through it and give you some advice. Maybe there's some interest on our part to work with you on it."

"Absolutely, happy to look out and give you what I think my opinion is. I have got a business plan. I've been making it for the last two months."

"Okay, and I will send it to you. Do you have one?"

"I don't actually have your email."

"There you go, it's a bit snazzy, isn't it? There you go."

"Pleasure, thank you very much. I'll send over to you, and hopefully we can start 21."

"So hopefully we can find... no, it's great to hear energy and passion. These sort of events, I'll tell you, you can't move a meter or a foot without bumping into a friend or a business associate. This is Harry Johnson, who is one of the foremost managers of corporate jets in the whole London-based area. How many airplanes are you managing right now?"

"12 at the moment, but the high-level airplanes, G700 when it comes, G650, G450, that kind of airplane."

"And Trevor Resling, who's been in aviation for 28 years?"

"30 years."

"Right, 35."

"35 years, sorry! And he's got a company called Vulcan Aviation, who also does some management, some sales, competes a little with him, but we try to work together. It was nice to see some of our friends."

We then had a look at the new Gulfstream G600.

"This airplane is the Gulfstream G600, the newest airplane that was certified until the new G700 is going to come to the market in the next few months. This airplane has a range of 6,600 nautical miles, so really you can go from London to Singapore. It's an airplane that has an amazing range, has huge windows, and also this aircraft has one of the fastest speeds at a 0.925 Mach, and also one of the lowest cabin pressure altitudes, which gives you a much more refreshed level of feeling as you're going on a long trip."

"Here in the center of the airplane, you have an amazing conference area where a lot of businesses sit here and have meetings. They can have the meal here or they could just sit and relax. This table also goes down to become a full bed. And back here, you have a separate cabin, sort of like a private bedroom or a conference area; you can hold six people back here."

"It's really quiet back here, both doors closed, so you can get full privacy, whether it's for a meeting, whether it's sleeping, and you have its own bathroom in the back, which is in addition to the one that's also in the front. The aircraft has an amazing size baggage compartment in the back. The airplane really is probably one of the top in the ultra-long-range aircraft."

"What's the biggest difference between this aircraft and a Gulfstream G650?"

"So in the G650, it's a little bit more expensive than the G600. The G600 has the new fly-by-wire hand controls, which gives the stability a little bit better as opposed to the old-fashioned yoke, which are starting to be phased out in the upper end of the market. So it gives you a better, calmer, and more stable experience. The G650 is a little bit wider and taller, but this airplane has similar speed and altitude to it."

"I've noticed that the owner has gone for the double-din configuration as opposed to the two club seats versus the din. Why is this more significant than this aircraft?"

"You know, these two dens come together to make one basically king-sized bed. Some people want that because they really do a lot of long trips overseas, and they want the privacy back here to sleep fully quiet and undisturbed from the other people in their party. But there are some of them that have one din and two seats so that you sleep on the din that pulls out; it could be a double bed, and then if you get up in the middle of the night, you can still sit in the seat and do your work. Some of them actually have conference tables back here, becoming a private conference area, and some of them just have four single seats, maybe for security, for staff or things like that. It becomes a crew rest area, so there's really... it really is a personalized area that's different."

"Most airplanes, then, if the bed is made and the passengers are in the front section of the cabin, can they then freely use the lavatory at the back if this is closed?"

"You have your own private area with the bathroom, and all the people that sit in the front section could go use the bathroom in the front."

After seeing the Gulfstream, I bumped into an old friend, George.

"George is the CEO of Lux Aviation in the UK. Lux Aviation manages over 220 aircraft worldwide. They operate management; they do charter; they do service. It's really an all-encompassing business. You can deal with so many CEOs, big companies, passengers, maintenance people, operators around the world. What do you think is really the best highlight of doing business in your position?"

"I love meeting people. It always fascinates me, learning about these people. Why? Why they go to work every day when they're so wealthy? Then, including, of course, why they need an aircraft, what they want to do with it. I think that's hugely exciting in our business, just dealing with people."

"George, I'm curious, in your experience with all these airplanes and all the owners and passengers, why do people really use these corporate jets?"

"I think the main use is business. It's getting for me to be using their time effectively. It's really unfortunate that the image of corporate jets is one of, shall we say, you have just a wealthy person flying around in a corporate jet for fun and games. It's a tiny percent that are really used for personal use, and it's unfortunate they get a bad image because it is everything against that. Even that doesn't include when they use it for air ambulance uses or for emergency airlift or for humanitarian aid. But unfortunately, they don't get the credit because, you know, fear is what sells."

"George Ganopoulos, Lux Aviation UK, it's been a pleasure seeing you again, like usual. I look forward to doing another deal with you."

"Excellent! Always good to see George, great guy! Make sure you check him out on his Instagram!"

Behind me is a Pilatus PC-12. It's an aircraft that there's probably been over 2,000 manufactured in the last 25, 26 years. It's a very short field performer and can land on grass at high altitude airports.

"I have taken this airplane to some ski resorts; you literally land right at the bottom of the ski mountain. You can put your ski boots on, skis, and just go ski right out. It's got amazing performance. It only burns like something like 65-70 gallons an hour, so it's super fuel-efficient. It goes about 250 knots. It's not something you want to take for a very long trip, but something 5-7-800 miles, it's perfectly safe, quiet, it's long-range, and it's very fuel-efficient. New, these aircraft cost about $6 million, and they've probably held more value than any single-engine airplane in history. You can get one that's 20 years old and still going to cost probably around $3 million."

"Let's go inside and have a look. Here you can see the inside of the airplane. It's much smaller than most corporate jets or much smaller than most people think a corporate jet is. It's basically the size, it's a little bit bigger actually than a minivan or SUV, but this airplane can hold up to 10 passengers in a sort of an airline style. This holds six right now, so that you can maximize the space in between the legs. Also, a huge amount of space for luggage, this airplane is like a pickup truck version; you can put in a Harley-Davidson in the back or something like that. It's an amazing performer for short-field performance, for cargo, for air ambulance. But you know something with a short range, maybe not under 1,000 miles is probably best, even though the maximum range on this airplane is closer to 1,600 nautical miles."

"You think there's no toilet on this little airplane? However, the airplane can go up to 6 or 7 hours, so you actually do need a toilet for emergency situations. I'm going to show you here where this little door opens up this way and closes to the cockpit. This door closes this way and inside here is a small little what they call a potty, but it's really to be used in emergencies because, um, even though you do have privacy, you have a little bit of opening at the top and on both sides."

"So you'd better have to go. Have you ever used a tiny toilet in there?"

"No, believe me! I understand when I have to get on this airplane. I've flown on this airplane for probably a 4-hour trip. I have learned to make sure I use the toilet before I get on the airplane. It works in an emergency, but um, you really need an emergency because it's just not very... you can't stand up. You're crunching, you're putting the toilet together with the doors. It's not very quiet; it's not very... the smoke penetrates. It's, you know, it's an emergency use."

"However, if you look at the back entrance to this airplane, you could really put anything inside this cabin. It really is a huge, huge benefit to this aircraft because it can hold so much luggage, so many huge pieces of cargo that it really is something that surpasses any other corporate jet. That opening doesn't exist on most corporate aircraft."

Shortly after, something interesting caught my eye.

"I'm here with Deac, who represents Pipistrel here in the UK. This airplane is really about to change aviation history. It's one of the first electric-powered airplanes that are coming to retail use, and I just want to ask a few questions of you, Deac. This is an amazing airplane! I can't believe... I know it looks tiny and it looks fragile, but it really... it's starting a whole new trend in aviation. How much does something like this cost?"

"€200,000 plus the tax."

"Okay, and how fast does it go?"

"Approximately about 100 mph."

"And how long is the range on the air?"

"1-hour flying time, so you get about 80 nautical miles."

"New technology in our industry always fascinates me. I had a lot of questions for Deac."

"Really good for flight training, I would think, right?"

"Indeed, it's designed for flight training, and we get 50 minutes of flying time with a safety margin and it rear-in one hour."

"That's amazing! How much do you charge, rent these out for, to students?"

"€225 per hour."

"And is there any difficulty when you transition from this airplane to a piston-powered airplane?"

"The flying side is not difficult, but it's the knowledge base that is completely different from piston-engine aircraft. In any aviation flight training, it's really not about how to fly a plane; it's what to do when something goes wrong, correct?"

"And this airplane here, how much does it weigh?"

"The empty weight is 425 kilos, so you have amazing... and you have a payload of about 200 kilos."

"Wow! And how much runway do you need to take off?"

"Make a guess."

"I would say it needs about 300 meters."

"That's it! You got it! That's a good guess, that's amazing. Basically, if you want to really get into learning how to fly, this is probably the most inexpensive way to do it. At €220 an hour, it takes to get a private pilot's license today in this area, about 40 to 50 hours, depending on the ability of learning. But it's an amazing way to learn about aviation and learn how to fly; much, much less expensive than in the typical way that everybody's been doing it for the last 60 years."

"I had to get into the cockpit."

"Wow, that was easy! This is like being in a race car, man. It's like being in a race car; it's super cool!"

"Yeah, now, actually, it's more comfortable than it looks. It's a great sport airplane. It's not going very fast, but I mean, for learning how to fly, this is amazing. You got all the new technology, glass instruments, all..."

"Are they...? This is Garmin here, and who manufactures these?"

"These are made in Slovenia by Canard Canard."

"I haven't heard of them. It's a modern instrument company."

"What's the operating cost if you own one of these?"

"What's the operating cost per hour? Make a guess."

"You were right at guessing the last one. I'd say 75 lbs an hour."

"More like 20."

"Really? Wow, 20 lb an hour! That's $25 an hour to operate this airplane, so it's very profitable for a flight school."

"Yeah, I can see that! So this aircraft is really priced at less than 10% of the smallest new jet that could be sold today."

"Really? This is amazing. If you really want to learn how to fly, this looks like a fantastic way to do it. Fantastic work, thank you very much! Appreciate it. It's great to meet Deepak and see his company's electric airplane."

We then left the Air Charter Expo and headed straight back to the office.

"Guy wants a Ka-band internet installed. It's the one thing that doesn't tick the box on the airplane. It's got all of the other things he wants; the year, the look, the galley, crew rest—the easiest thing that needs to be done on that airplane is to add Ka-band. I know it costs money, but it's an easy installation that could be done very quickly. And just to make the pricing more enticing for them, can we knock off 700,000?"

"No, no, no. Nuances in details and every deal are constantly changing. We constantly have to be in touch with each other to find out everything new that's going on in every single deal. The asking price is 20,240,000. If they want to make an offer to include that Ka-band installation or make a net offer minus that amount, we could bring that to the seller and ask them if they would consider that offer. But you know, we don't have the authority to make that offer or reduce the price. Only the seller can do that, so let them make the offer in writing, we'll bring it to the seller, and we'll see if you can consider that."

"This used to be my first show, right here on the corner where a SPRE is going into the new Peninsula Hotel that's just opening up this week on High Park Corner. I missed this location; I have a lot of good memories there opening the business for the first time 12 years ago. The space was half the size of the one I have now, and I think the one we have now is a better location, but it's really beautiful in the hotel."

I got back to the office and went straight to work.

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