Discovering how the other half flies

Here is some frivolous but fascinating information about air travel for rich people:

* Air Royale International, a Los Angeles-based private jet broker, can send a party of up to 10 from Burbank to Paris and back on a Dassault Falcon 2000 for about $129,010. The trip takes 11 hours and 56 minutes going and 13 hours and 18 minutes returning, with a stop each way for refueling in Newfoundland.

* A bigger private jet -- say, a new Gulfstream 550 -- could do the same trip nonstop. If you’re in the market, you can get one for $46.5 million.

* Owning a private jet is apparently a bother because of government-mandated maintenance. Thus, many corporations and individuals buy fractional shares of aircraft from companies that put a fleet of planes at their disposal for blocks of time, depending on shares purchased. A 25-hour block can cost more than $100,000.

* Taking a tour by private jet is less expensive than buying or chartering. American Museum of Natural History Discovery Tours, for example, is offering an exploration of coral reefs and oceans on a private jet April 14 to May 5, with stops as far afield as Borneo and the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean. You’ll be on a fixed itinerary, but the price is an economical $48,900 per person.

Of course, most of us don’t need to know such things. But recently I got a vicarious thrill by finding out how the other half flies. To do so, I met Wayne Rizzi, president of Air Royale, at the Mercury Air Center on the fringe of Bob Hope Airport, where a Falcon 2000 was awaiting my inspection.

Like St. Peter, its crew -- two pilots and a flight attendant -- ushered me into an air travelers’ heaven across a carpet laid out at the entrance and up the steps.

Inside, it is all beige upholstery, gold-plated fittings, new-car smell, big windows, fresh flowers and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony emanating from the cabin’s sound system. The Falcon 2000 comes with amenities for workaholics -- fax machine, telephone, computer hookup and Internet access -- and a collection of CDs and DVDs (shown on three screens). But if you want to watch “An American in Paris” on your way to France, Rizzi will make sure it’s there.

The cabin has a table with padded banquette-style seating and six single seats. These can be converted into a double and three single beds. A spacious bathroom is stocked with towels, toothbrushes and razors and yields to the baggage compartment, which is pressurized so passengers have access to their luggage during the flight. The galley is at the front.

Full meals -- from caviar to Taco Bell -- can be arranged, though catering is extra.

Rizzi, who started in the luxury air travel industry as a purser for now-defunct MGM Grand Air, said his clients had a hard time deciding what to eat because there was no menu.

“Here, it’s anything,” he said. “One client always has chicken salad sandwiches.”

Rizzi won’t reveal who the chicken salad lover is. His clients are celebrities, diplomats, royalty and chief executives, and keeping their identities secret is sacrosanct in his business. “I get calls from the press trying to weasel the names of passengers,” Rizzi said. “My job is to keep them out of the public eye.”

Private jet travel offers myriad attractions to those with enough money. Security is one, especially valued since Sept. 11. Private jet charter companies do such thorough background checks on prospective passengers that luggage doesn’t have to be put through a scanner. “I know exactly who’s getting on an aircraft,” said Tom Sutherland, the pilot of the Falcon 2000 I toured. “I personally check them out.”

Almost as compelling is the convenience. Private jets generally use small airports, allowing access to hard-to-reach places without connections. Congestion and delays common at major hubs are also diminished.

Advantages such as these have resulted in growth for private jet companies. Rizzi said his business had doubled since 2001.

Deteriorating service and high ticket prices have also driven some business travelers into the cabins of private jets. “And it’s not just CEOs,” said Robert Baugniet, a spokesman for the Savannah, Ga.-based Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., which makes the state-of-the-art Gulfstream 550. To avoid the delays caused by new security measures at major airports, corporations have started using private jets to transport groups of lower-level employees, he said.

Lately, Rizzi has seen a small but striking increase in the number of leisure travelers who want to fly by private jet, including couples with complicated vacation itineraries, groups for party weekends and moms and kids going to Grandma’s for the holidays. He once arranged a Sweet 16 trip for a client’s daughter, from Paris to Tokyo on a 747 with 99 first-class seats for about $20,000 an hour.

Air Royale’s sister company, Private Jetaway, founded by Rizzi in 1997, creates custom vacations, featuring villas and yachts. San Francisco-based Geographic Expeditions specializes in remote destinations, sometimes reached by helicopter.

I’d need to charter the Falcon 2000 for only four hours to fly round-trip from Burbank to Vegas, Rizzi said. The price would be about $16,400, or $1,640 each if I shared with nine friends. Unfortunately, that’s still information I don’t need to know.