Private Jets: A Hobby Only for the Wealthy?

If you are familiar with the lives of billionaires like Elon Musk or celebrities like Taylor Swift, you might admire various aspects of how they live. They seem to live carefree lives because of their wealth. For instance, they often use private jets when they want to travel. 

Are private jets something that only the ultra-wealthy can afford, though? Owning one may be out of your reach, but there’s also such a thing as a fractional jet program. You should know about this option if you’ve given up on enjoying the trapping of the luxury lifestyle.  

Before you start looking into the best fractional jet program, you should make sure you understand this concept. We will talk about it in detail in the following article. 

What is a Fractional Jet Program?

If you own a private jet outright, then you can usually use it whenever you like, with very few restrictions. If you have the money, you can fly from coast to coast or another country more or less on a whim. 

If you have money but are not what most people would consider wealthy, that puts you in an in-between stage for luxury items. You may be able to afford a very nice house, but you can’t design and build your own mansion.

That’s where fractional jet ownership comes in. You can look at it in the same way you would timeshare ownership. You don’t own a timeshare outright. Instead, you own a stake in it. You can usually use it for a few weeks per year.

Fractional jet ownership is the same. You’re buying a stake in a jet, usually along with several other individuals or families. This way, you can sometimes use the jet, but not always. 

Who Can Afford to Buy Into a Fractional Jet Program?

Let’s not mince words: if you’re in a position where you can barely afford to pay your rent every month, then you won’t be able to either buy a jet outright or buy into a fractional jet program. The starting cost to buy into such a program is about $100K per year. It only goes up from there. 

At that price point, you can probably understand pretty well who can afford this luxury item. It’s someone who is doing well for themselves but is not wealthy in the usual sense of the world, at least not by today’s standards. 

Are There Any Drawbacks?

If you have that much money to spend, and you like the idea of flying in a private jet sometimes, you can do it. There are several prominent fractional jet programs throughout the world.

The main drawback, as far as most people are concerned, is that you can’t just hop in the jet and use it at any time. There’s still a little bit of planning involved. However, if you have the money to take one elaborate vacation yearly, and you like the idea of flying in a private plane, this is how you can do it.