The Jet Business BBC World News Feature

I wish I were sharing. Do you want to hand me a billion dollars? I'll help you out. Okay, watch this, watch this. Hey, you know how it is—you've got a billion dollars in the bank and you don't know what to do with it. It is a problem many people face. I think, thankfully, uh, talking businesses here with some top consumer advice, because one way you could spend some of that cash is on a private chat. I've been looking at how, where, and why.

Take a look! Cruising at 35,000 feet in the lap of luxury in your own private jet—life is sweet! Who am I kidding? I work for the BBC; I'm not cruising at 35,000 feet. My feet are firmly planted on the ground. I'm in a shop in the heart of London. Do you know how we go to a shop to buy a pair of jeans, maybe a pair of shoes? Oh no! Millionaires and billionaires from all over the world come to this shop to buy one of these. It is the only retail shop of its kind where you can do so.

Hey, let's go and meet the bloke who started it all—Steve Asano. He set up the jet business, and he's right here. Steve, what are you doing? You've got a part of a plane, an Airbus 319, in the showroom. You've got this almighty showroom here. This is not the traditional way of selling jets; you're a disrupter.

"I've been called worse. Uh, listen, we're just trying to educate the client. We just want to sell an airplane to somebody the way I'd like to be sold it."

Okay, well, talking or selling, I want to buy a plane today. How does it work?

"You need four things to tell me. You need to tell me how much you want to spend, what's the maximum range you want, how old's an airplane you want maximum, and the number of passengers you want."

Okay, that's easy! The BBC has given me 40 million dollars in cash; we're all washed with money. So I've got 40 million. Let's say five years because I still want to smell the leather in the plane, and passengers, let's say 12. Oh, range—where I want to go? Well, Steve, I'm an Aussie, and I'm from God's country. I'm from Sydney; I want to go there. I can't go non-stop to Sydney, so let's go. I've got family in Singapore—let's say to Singapore.

"Okay, so if you've got Singapore, that's 5,800 miles."

Yep. Now we only have three choices: if we use those four parameters you just gave me, you have the BBJ, the Global 6000, the Gulfstream 550.

"Okay, well, look, leave that with me because I may have to call the editor. I'll have to think about it, but look, let's go inside this one, and I want to talk to you about the business—your business."

You know, it is still remarkable to be looking—there's Park Lane, Park Lane London. I could ask you this: who in the heck drives by, sees this, and goes, "Oh yeah, that's what I need! I need a jet!"

"Listen, this is the most internationally transient city in the world, and this is the actual best window in four continents. So you literally have had people off the street eventually buy a jet from you?"

"100%. We get, you know, people from the Middle East, from the ex-CIS countries, from Europe, Africa, everywhere in the world."