Lhe big boss loves private jets. Especially in the United States where the distances justify frequent air travel. Why bother waiting for hours in airport queues when you can arrive a quarter of an hour before the departure of your own aircraft, with generally much greater comfort. The temptation is great and the health crisis has provided valuable arguments. Global traffic has increased by more than 20% in 2021 and major players in the sector claim to have increased their number of customers by 50%.
This is understandable for business travel, faced with airlines struggling to regain their pre-Covid traffic, less for going with the family. Yet this is what the Financial Times, which lists corporate spending on executives’ private jets for “personal reasons.” Meta, Facebook’s parent company, spent $1.6 million (1.5 million euros) on private jets just to transport its boss, Mark Zuckerberg. That of Lockheed Martin, James Taiclet, is transported to his country house. In total, fees for personal travel paid by companies increased by more than 35% between 2020 and 2021, according to investor advisory firm ISS.
Aerial debauchery
This aerial debauchery is not going to endanger the accounts of these flourishing companies, but it is shocking and disturbing. When the bosses’ salary increases at the rate of the evolution of the Stock Exchange in 2021, with salaries commonly exceeding, in the United States, the threshold of 20 million dollars, one wonders if these lucky people also need that the company funds their Florida vacation. If we add the disastrous carbon footprint of such practices, we can wonder about the level of knowledge that boards of directors have about their own company’s commitments in social, environmental and governance matters.
The private jet is also a fairly good indicator of the drift of oversight of corporate management. When the KKR investment fund learned in 1988 that the boss of RJR Nabisco was using the company’s one to travel his German shepherd, they realized that it was time to sell and dismantle the company.
Since then, shareholders have made it an indicator of good management and the integrity of the board of directors. He lowers his guard. The boss of the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund, Nicolai Tangen, affirmed last May that “the greed of the bosses is reaching unprecedented levels”. When the jets are back, the wolves of Wall Street can sharpen their teeth.