The Private-Jet Money Club

Last year we noted a WSJ article about how the super-rich signal their wealth to each other and to the merely rich. Owning items such as watches and art are only the first step; talking about them with casual insouciance is a practiced skill.

Flying private makes it easier to bring Fifi (Citrin-Safadi/WSJ)

Another item discussed in that article--flying on a private jet--has become the number one marker of real wealth.

Flying private has become the ultimate luxury splurge for many wealthy individuals, surpassing Ferraris, Hermès Birkin bags topping $14,000 or even waterfront Hamptons homes. For many of those aspiring to join the ranks of the truly rich, having “private-jet money” is the new goal, dividing the 1% from the 0.1%.

The pandemic unleashed a burst of demand, but providers say popular culture has turbocharged enthusiasm and envy for the fly-private lifestyle. Social media has given younger people a glimpse into the lives of jet-setters, whether it is a model flying with friends to a bachelorette party in Los Cabos, Mexico, or a hedge-fund manager hopping a plane to a birthday weekend in St. Barts.

...The club of ultrahigh net worth individuals with more than $30 million in assets hit a record in 2024, according to estimates from the wealth-intelligence provider Altrata. The U.S. added more than 1,000 millionaires every day last year on average, according to UBS. The billionaire club grew more than 50% between 2015 and 2024.

Thee are surely sub-categories within the private-jet club, ranging from those who lease the planes occasionally to those who own the plane outright and pay their crews as full-time employees (much like the difference between owning a time-share versus the entire property).

Note: Grok describes the difference between the 1% and the 0.1%.

As of Q2 2024, the average wealth of households in the top 1% in the U.S. is about $35.5 million, while the top 0.1% have an average wealth of over $158.6 million. This means the top 0.1% hold roughly 4.5 times more wealth per household than the top 1%. The top 1% collectively hold 30.3% of total U.S. wealth ($43.45 trillion), while the top 0.1% own 13.5% of it. The wealth gap reflects the concentration of assets like corporate equities and business income among the ultra-wealthy.