Another Widening Gap: The Haves vs. the Have-Mores

The New York Times
November 16, 2014

Other forms of luxury transportation also abounded at the annual event — whether a Bentley or a helicopter perched atop one boat.CreditAndrew Innerarity for The New York Times

Philip Rushton has been selling private jets to the global rich for more than three decades. In just about every economic cycle, sales of small jets and big jets tended to move together — rising and falling with financial markets and fortunes of the wealthy.

Now, however, the jet market is splitting in two. Sales of the largest, most expensive private jets — including private jumbo jets — are soaring, with higher prices and long waiting lists. Smaller, cheaper jets, however, are piling up on the nation’s private-jet tarmacs with big discounts and few buyers.

“The real demand is at the very top,” said Mr. Rushton, the president ofAviatrade, a private-jet brokerage and advisory company. “The big guys, the billionaires, have plenty of money, and they’re buying. But the middle and lower end has been much slower to recover from the crisis.”

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