Tiger Woods flies around in a G550 (NetJets), the Google boys and Paul Allen use 757’s as their private jets, President Bush uses a 747 (Air Force One).  None of those planes were big enough for Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal.  Nope, the Prince has ordered the double-decker, brand new Airbus A380. 

This plane is HUGE.  Set up for regular passengers it can seat more than 800 passengers.  The way the Prince will configure it sounds like he expects to travel with 40-50 friends… in style!  The plane goes for $300 million and change.  That’s just the plane.  Then the Prince needs to get a designer to layout the inside so that it’s fit for oil royalty to spend long flights on board.  One challenge will be that there aren’t even that many airports in the world that can handle this plane!  So much for the ability to drop in on a tiny island.  The plane requires a long runway and special equipment to get passengers on and off. 

The purchase is actually an upgrade for the Prince who evidently felt cramped in the 747-400 he currently has.  The A380 has actually been a long time coming.  Airbus has been challenged to deliver the plane to customers that have ordered it.  In fact the Prince likely won’t take possession of his new flying palace for several years.

Here’s how you and I might see the A380:

Here’s how the Prince’s version might look:

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 15th, 2007 at 11:44 am and is filed under Private Jets. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.