A lot of habits picked up in the pandemic era have stuck around.
For most of us, that means grabbing Ubers when we could take the subway, or ordering food rather than walking to the store.
For the super-rich, however, those convenient little time-saves now include ditching scheduled flights for trips on private jets.
The global private aviation sector has been growing year on year since 2020 and the United Arab Emirates, no stranger to wealth and glitz, is spearheading the boom.
One unique offering out of Dubai is the 9H-FIVE party jet, launched in 2023 by luxury hotel brand FIVE, which has three on-the-ground properties in Dubai.
The aircraft is an ACJ TwoTwenty, Airbus’ new business jet in partnership with Comlux. And while private planes might typically be decked out in corporate beige, the offering here focuses not on business but pleasure.
LED lighting adjusts for mood in the 16-seat cabin kitted out with electro-chromatic window shades, two 55-inch TV screens, an in-flight sound system with the availability of a specially curated playlist, smart technology touchscreens, high-speed Wi-Fi, and plenty of space to dance.
The jet has an impressive 12-hour non-stop flying time, which would comfortably cover a jaunt from Dubai to London or to Tokyo, for example. When guests get hungry, there’s a fully equipped kitchen and a dining table for eight, with a choice of menus from FIVE’s hotel restaurants.
The cabin is a generous 78.1 by 10.8 feet (23.8 by 3.3 meters), with a height of 6.6 feet (two meters). Finally, there is of course also a Master Suite with a king-size bed and on-board shower, for refreshing before landing.
All this extravagance is available to FLY FIVE guests, or anyone else who wishes to hire the jet, for around $15,000 an hour, which is admittedly a good bit less than buying a $100 million ACJ TwoTwenty themselves.
VIPs and heads of state
Chartered flights are a key part of this private aviation boom, as a more affordable way of achieving that exclusive experience – although still big dollars.
FLY FIVE has told CNN that since officially beginning operations in April 2023, 9H-FIVE has been booked more than 50 times, with customers including VIPs and heads of state, chartering flights across Europe, USA, UK, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
This private aviation boom has occurred despite criticism from environmental groups that private jets are a disproportionally large contributor to global carbon dioxide emissions, with shorter flights being less efficient and the emissions per passenger much higher.
FLY FIVE tells CNN it offsets its annual emissions by purchasing Nature-Based Carbon Credits, supporting rainforest preservation and reforestation, and aims to renew its offsetting activities annually. It’s also been certified by Climate Offset Certification (COC), which promotes carbon offset transaction transparency.
Elsewhere in the private jet space, at last year’s Dubai Air Show Lufthansa Technik unveiled a new cabin design for the upcoming BBJ 777-9 — the private jet version of Boeing’s new widebody aircraft, the 777X. The design, called CelestialSTAR, has as its centerpiece the largest rain and massage shower ever built on an aircraft, which can merge with the bedroom (with kingsize bed, of course) for a fully private retreat.
The BBJ 777-9 will be the world’s largest twin-engine private jet, with about 3,700 square feet of cabin space (343 square meters), and the plane can fly nonstop for 22 hours. That means it could connect any two cities in the world without stopovers, according to Boeing.
The cost, though, of this state-of-the-art new plane and its custom interior racks up to about half a billion dollars, so it’s purely an option for the ultra-ultra rich.
There is one more budget option for those wishing to party on a plane, however. A decommissioned British Airways 747 is available for $1,300 an hour at Cotswold Airport in England, although it doesn’t move an inch and never departs terra firma.
Owner Suzannah Harvey told CNN in 2022, “It’s a very versatile events facility, so it can accommodate anything from a kid’s birthday party, through to a new product launch or a corporate presentation.”
The whole of the aircraft even has a wedding license. Said Harvey, “So you can get married in the cockpit if you want.”