World's Second Richest Man Sells Jet So People On Twitter Won't Track Him Anymore (gizmodo.com) 80
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Gizmodo: Bernard Arnault, the CEO of luxury brand LVMH -- known for expensive labels like Louis Vuitton -- is the world's second-richest man according to Bloomberg's Billionaires Index. He currently clocks in at a net worth of $133 billion, beating out Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' paltry $130 billion. He's also been harangued on Twitter for his consistent use of private jets. French accounts that use planes' transponder signals and publicly accessible information have tracked Arnault's and other rich folks' use of private jets to reveal just how much wasteful flying time is used by the world's wealthiest.
In September, the Twitter account laviodebernard (Bernard's Plane) wrote that Arnault's plane had been de-registered in France. The account wrote "The LVMH private jet has not been registered in France since September 1, 2022. Still no word from Bernard Arnault or LVMH on the subject of private jets. So Bernard, are we hiding?" Apparently, that's just what Arnault has been doing. On the LVMH-owned podcast released Monday, Arnault admitted that the LVMH group "had a plane, and we sold it." He added: "The result now is that no one can see where I go because I rent planes when I use private planes."
Antoine Arnault, the second scion of the world's second richest man, a LVMH board member and director of communications for Louis Vuitton, also said during the podcast that other people knowing where their company jet is could give competitors an edge. He also told French news channel 5's a Vous last week "This plane is a work tool." As translated by Bloomberg, the younger Arnault added that the company sold the plane over the summer.
In September, the Twitter account laviodebernard (Bernard's Plane) wrote that Arnault's plane had been de-registered in France. The account wrote "The LVMH private jet has not been registered in France since September 1, 2022. Still no word from Bernard Arnault or LVMH on the subject of private jets. So Bernard, are we hiding?" Apparently, that's just what Arnault has been doing. On the LVMH-owned podcast released Monday, Arnault admitted that the LVMH group "had a plane, and we sold it." He added: "The result now is that no one can see where I go because I rent planes when I use private planes."
Antoine Arnault, the second scion of the world's second richest man, a LVMH board member and director of communications for Louis Vuitton, also said during the podcast that other people knowing where their company jet is could give competitors an edge. He also told French news channel 5's a Vous last week "This plane is a work tool." As translated by Bloomberg, the younger Arnault added that the company sold the plane over the summer.
Nice job! (Score:5, Funny)
These Twitter users just made an obscenely rich person's life slightly less convenient, and I'm all for that.
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Re:Nice job! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Nice job! (Score:4, Insightful)
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Yeah but presumably it's other rich strangers, so he may not mind it much!
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When you put it that way, I don't want to use any public toilet.
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That seems doubtful. Assistant rents properly outfitted and stocked plane, plane picks up Bernard, plane delivers Bernard. Doubt he even notices the difference.
It wont even be that complex.
A new plane has probably already been leased out from the usual suspects (GECAS, Air Lease Corporation, et al) and will be available for his exclusive use (I gather this arsehole is not the kind who like sharing, so renting ad hoc will not be an option) so the registration will belong to the lessor and presumably changed as required.
Arguably this is just going to slow down the people trolling him (hey, I may agree with them but they're still trolling).
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The alternative to selling the jet would have been to just send the jet on constant trips to randomly chosen destinations, so that people following the twitter account wouldn't know which are trips by the actual rich guy, and which are decoy trips, and thus not know where the rich guy is.
This would, of course, have vastly increased the carbon dioxide emissions. So I'm glad he sold the jet instead.
--they should repeal the tax break on jet fuel [accountingweb.com], which partly is responsible for these rich guys' jaunts.
Re: Nice job! (Score:4, Informative)
--they should repeal the tax break on jet fuel, which partly is responsible for these rich guys' jaunts.
Did you even read the link you provided?
It's a tax break for commercial airlines, not private jets, and it's only 37 of the 50 US states that offer any such breaks.
This is a French businessman and a personal jet, not United airlines...
Tax break on jet fuel [Re: Nice job!] (Score:4, Informative)
--they should repeal the tax break on jet fuel, which partly is responsible for these rich guys' jaunts.
Did you even read the link you provided? It's a tax break for commercial airlines, not private jets, and it's only 37 of the 50 US states that offer any such breaks. This is a French businessman and a personal jet, not United airlines...
The corporate jet in question mostly was used for international flights, so no, they don't only buy fuel in France. But, for that matter, France also has a tax exemption for jet fuel. too. See, for example: https://reseauactionclimat.org... [reseauactionclimat.org]
While that article focuses on airlines, the tax exemption applies to corporate jets used for "business purposes", and the jet discussed here is, in fact, not actually a private jet, but the LVMH corporate one. I'm sure that the tax accountants hired by billionaires know the legalities of claiming the jet flights as "business use," that's what they get paid for.
"Thus, an exemption from tax can be claimed on demonstrating that the aircraft is being used for commercial purposes. Aircraft, including private jets, are not required to pay fuel tax on domestic flights within France or flights within the European Union." (from: https://compareprivateplanes.c... [compareprivateplanes.com])
And the EU is proposing a overall tax break for private jets: https://www.argusmedia.com/en/... [argusmedia.com]
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And the EU is proposing a overall tax break for private jets: https://www.argusmedia.com/en/ [argusmedia.com]... [argusmedia.com]
The EU WAS proposing, that link is over a year old - did they or didn't they approve it?
And so what if the people that put the fuel tax in place decide to repeal/waive the tax? The purpose is clearly to encourage pilots to buy fuel locally rather than filling up somewhere else (their destination)?
You act like literal billionaires sit around and say, "well, I was going to fly the family to Switzerland for a skiing weekend, but, Mon Dieu, those fuel taxes! We'll stay home instead."
People that own private jets
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People that own private jets don't sweat the taxes on fuels
Right: they hire accountants to do that for them.
Repeal the goddamn tax break on jet fuel.
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I've seen enough movies to know the answer to this. He should have bought 10 more jets and just used one randomly, and each time he took a flight, all 10 jets would take off and land somewhere.
If his location doesn't leak, they just keep hopping around each time he goes anywhere. If his location leaks, the other 9 would pop over to whatever city he was in, so that the next trip he could be on any one of them again restoring his privacy.
I'd make a great billionaire.
Re: Nice job! (Score:2)
"pEoPlE aRe tRaCkInG mE!" - I don't know if this is just paranoia, or there is more to this story than we are being told.
References [Re: Nice job!] (Score:3)
"pEoPlE aRe tRaCkInG mE!" - I don't know if this is just paranoia, or there is more to this story than we are being told.
You had to be familiar with other stories on the subject. I thought /. had covered it, but I couldn't find it in an exhaustive search (almost a whole minute, maybe even two, spent on duckduckgo).
See https://www.technology.org/202... [technology.org]
https://www.prudentpressagency... [prudentpressagency.com]
https://www.theverge.com/2016/... [theverge.com]
Re: References [Re: Nice job!] (Score:2)
I see. Plenty of worry over the potential 'creative' uses for the data gathered that's putting a bee in their bonnets, I bet. :O)
Re:Nice job! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Nice job! (Score:5, Informative)
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Hell, how about this:
Sell his personal old personal plane. Done.
Buy a NEW personal plane. However, don't buy it directly, set up a rental company(or buy one), then have IT buy the plane.
What happens then depends on how many planes the rental company has.
1: The company is on the rental sites, but 90% of the time the plane is "already reserved", the rental price on the high side, etc... The guy just pays the "reserve just in case" price, which is amazingly similar to what the plane would have cost persona
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There are plenty of companies renting jets. Renting a private jet is pretty easy if you have the money.
Renting is never as good as owning - especially if you
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Re: Nice job! (Score:2)
Exactly. That poster has no concept of being a billionaire, who the ability to rent a plane 365 days/year, up front, just in case you might want to fly somewhere some day.
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If you own the jet, you can decide tomorrow to fly halfway around the world for lunch. If you rent, well, you might be able to do it - depends if they have a jet available you want to rent and a crew able to fly it But what if after lunch you want to fly somewhere else on a whim? In a rental, you might not be able to do that because the jet is needed shortly after the agreed upon time.
That sounds like a good thing. Fewer pointless, high pollution journeys.
Re:Nice job! (Score:5)
These Twitter users just made an obscenely rich person's life slightly less convenient, and I'm all for that.
Yes, now his secretary has to call a different phone number to schedule a private flight. Well done. As a bonus for Bernard, renting a plane is probably less expensive than owning one, depending on how much it's used and assuming he didn't also rent out his own. The end result is zero difference as the same amount of jet fuel will be consumed and he won't actually be inconvenienced at all. Also, someone else is now flying his old plane ...
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If he owns a private jet, it is likely that it's also used by other members of the family, often flying to their location, then flying them around, then flying back. Using locally sources rental jets is likely to reduce the amount of CO2 emissions.
Re:Nice job! (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm sure that's the reason. Nothing at all to do with his and LMVH's investment in the second largest private jet rental company in the world.
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Proud of being succumbing to jealousy, Wow you are distasteful. What if he is jealous of something you have? Money isn't everything. And by the way, to a poor person in Africa or someplace, you are a millionaire. Just by getting to live in the USA or first world country the perceived gap between you and someone who earns $1 a day in Africa is huge. Now you may not feel a million times happier than that dude, now do you believe a billionaire is a million times happier than you .. for you to be jealous and sp
Re: Nice job! (Score:2)
Oh yeah, people like him speak pejoratively about the so called 1%, basically a really arbitrary number, then when you point out that if they're making over $50k, then they're part of the 1% that they want everybody to hate. That of course pisses them off, but if you try to take away their iphone to feed a starving African, they'll cut you.
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This is not the 1%, this motherfucker literally has more wealth than several African countries, about which you are apparently so concerned.
Re: Nice job! (Score:1)
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1) why do you care? Does his secretary going to a different URL or calling a different phone number to arrange his private flights inconvenience *anyone*?
2) are you happy his pilot, crew, and plane maintenance people are now out of jobs? Did you even consider their loss for one second? Rich people create jobs for normal people.
3) a cross U.S. private plane flight is about $50k a seat for a nobody. I'm sure he can get cheaper rates in bulk. This is probably a lot less then he was spending to keep that p
Re: Nice job! (Score:2)
3) a cross U.S. private plane flight is about $50k a seat for a nobody.
Bullshit.
You think a private jet costs $50K/SEAT to fly 4K miles?
Citation please.
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I talked to or got online quotes for a specific flight from west coast to east coast for 2 people, one way. This was about 5 weeks ago. Flight dates in mid/late November.
Very consistently every private charter place was $46k to $54k plus tax.
Maybe there is a private charter conspiracy to rip me off.
Re: Nice job! (Score:3)
From afar.com:
The cost for a six-hour cross-country private jet charter flight
On a turboprop or smaller private jet: $7,800 to $18,000 (4 to 6 passengers)
On a midsize private jet: $24,000 to $48,000 (up to 9 passengers)
On a large private jet: $51,600 to $78,000 (14 to 19 passengers)
I can shuttle 19 people cross-country in a large (Gulfstream G500) for $51-78K, as little as $2,500 to $4,000/per person, not $50K per person.
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Yeah I'm talking first class, private, not shared with others. I had real quotes in hand from several private jet companies but ok I'm sure your numbers are more accurate.
I don't see that chart or anything close to self chosen dates and departure end points on afar.com. It looks like a funsie travel adventure planning site. What's the url for that? Are you sure that's not a per person price? Those are first class air line ticket prices per seat.
Re: Nice job! (Score:3)
No, they tracked his travel in real-time, putting him and his family at greater personal risk.
Was tracking his plane legal? Of course, it was a public record. But it's also his right to travel anonymously.
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Re: Nice job! (Score:1)
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Twitter? (Score:3)
Twitter, or a twitter user?
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Twitter, or a twitter user?
Its probably that douche Jack Sweeney that was tracking Elon Musk, Mark Cuban, and the Russian Oligarchs. He hopes to monetize this at some point, which to me just seems like making money by stalking people. Yeah, the flight records are public, yet following someone around in public all day is pretty much stalking unless you are a licensed PI or paparazzi and even then its still questionable.
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Won't someone think of the poor russian oligarchs!
Hypocrites (Score:2)
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What is a 'wasteful use of a private plane'? What is not a wasteful use of anything? What is life but a bunch of wasteful use of resources and we all do it anyway?
If I had billions of dollars I would have my own jet planes, yachts and whatnot, that's what billions of dollars buy you. If you make billions and cannot have your own private planes and yachts then why bother, there is something wrong with the world then.
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What is wasteful? These type of people have businesses all around the world/country and flying these jets is the fastest way to do that. Maybe your trip to the mall, shop, friend is also the wasteful trip. In light of all the pollution, most of these private jets are much cleaner than those large 747's which also fly empty just to keep their slots on airfields, let's first start with making those type of flights illegal and not have those airlines need to fly those wasteful flights just to keep their spot.
I
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let's first start with making those type of flights illegal and not have those airlines need to fly those wasteful flights just to keep their spot.
There are a million or so people in the air at any one time. Millions of non-empty flights per year. Those empty flights would still be a small small minority, and would still not be as wasteful as a private jet.
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...BUT because someone is rich letâ(TM)s track their plane??
No, because it's a plane and planes are guided missiles, track the plane.
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Personal aircraft are a lot less deadly than airliner sized planes.
That said, there's nothing against tracking the plane by the appropriate authorities.
What isn't, supposedly, necessary is tracking every plane totally publicly.
So it's like your healthcare records - your doctor or the ATOs get your records/plane flight data. They aren't distributed to the world. Sure, somebody could sit at the end of the runway and record tail numbers - but they actually have to do it.
Same deal with license plate scanners
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Personal aircraft are a lot less deadly than airliner sized planes.
Uh, no. General aviation is more dangerous. https://thepointsguy.com/news/... [thepointsguy.com]
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I phrased that poorly.
You're a lot better off if you're in the vicinity of an accident involving GA aircraft. You're more likely to die while in one, but it's a bit like a motorcycle vs a truck - you're less likely to hurt others on the motorcycle, but more likely to die yourself.
Remember, I made my comment in the context of "Areyoukiddingme" calling them guided missiles. Ergo, I wasn't thinking of the passengers, but the people in the impact zone.
Re: Hypocrites (Score:2)
Planes are tracked for lots of reasons, publishing the precise location of the richest man on the planet is a bit 'creepy'.
Are you willing to have someone publish your exact location? As a billionaire can we agree he has reasons to try and travel anonymously that have more to do with personal security than anything else?
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All planes are tracked, they need to be for flight coordination. Same with all boats.
Surprised (Score:1)
Re: Surprised (Score:3)
How it was registered is not the issue - it likely wasn't in his name. All it took was an airfield worker turning to a stranger, pointing at the jet saying "You know whose plane that is?" And the stranger notes the tail number of the plane.
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Surprised he had it under his own name
It wasn't; it was the corporate jet of LVMH, the company he is CEO of.
Rented plane AKA "hide the data" (Score:2)
These rich "green" globalist "woke" people are a bunch of frauds and hypocrites. If you are in that position and you are a decent, moral, honest person, you either [a] announce your belief in the global warming panic and then stop all unnecessary travel and reduce your other energy usage etc, or you [b] announce your criticism of the global warming stuff and then boldly fly on your jets, drive your limos and SUVs, sail your super yachts, etc. The thing you do NOT do is tell people you believe in all the war
Re: Rented plane AKA "hide the data" (Score:2)
People who cry about "climate change" who have non-adopted children just need to publicly announce that they don't actually care about the impact humans have on the world, sit down and shut the fuck up.
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These rich "green" globalist "woke" people are a bunch of frauds and hypocrites.
This was Bernard Arnault, the CEO of luxury brand LVMH. He's not "green" nor "woke".
Like most billionaires, his main political interests have consisted mostly of pushing for free-markets, but one of the things he did with his private jet flights was jetting to the US to shake hands with Donald Trump.
The rationale for business use of general aviation (Score:3)
Yes, there are a very small number of extremely wealthy people who fly General Aviation in the US, but they are dwarfed by the real users: small- to medium-sized businesses flying technical, sales, medical, and management staff into municipal airports. The US is a country the size of a continent. If you need to visit three factories spread across the midwest in one trip in a day, you won't be able to do that flying commercial. There just aren't enough commercial airports available. There are about 500 commercial airports in the US, but there are 5,000+ General Aviation airports.
Unlike commercial aircraft, business aircraft are set up for business. You can conduct a meeting enroute, for example. Access on and off the aircraft is direct and simple. And, you can land much closer to your destination. Yes, it is very expensive to fly General Aviation, but it can also be much more efficient. Time is money. That efficiency can definitely make it worth the higher per unit cost.
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The US is a country the size of a continent. If you need to visit three factories spread across the midwest in one trip in a day, you won't be able to do that flying commercial. There just aren't enough commercial airports available. There are about 500 commercial airports in the US, but there are 5,000+ General Aviation airports.
Unlike commercial aircraft, business aircraft are set up for business. You can conduct a meeting enroute, for example. Access on and off the aircraft is direct and simple. And, you can land much closer to your destination. Yes, it is very expensive to fly General Aviation, but it can also be much more efficient. Time is money. That efficiency can definitely make it worth the higher per unit cost.
This. I was involved in a R&D program where the gear we were testing was mounted in a King Air Aircraft. We needed to get an assembly for the gear to test that was at another facility 200 miles away, located conveniently at an airport. Instead of spending 4 hours (1/2 the day) having it driven down, we hopped into the King Air, flew up and had the assembly in our hands in less than an hour so we could continue with our testing immediately. One can calculate what the assembly shipping cost us by flying u
Hmmmm... (Score:2)
Yes, getting rid of your jet makes it more difficult for people to track you.
Though somehow, I highly doubt he's worried about "competitors" as he put it. He's an obscenely wealthy man, with some very questionable ties to extremely bad people. [bloomberg.com]
He's got a few sets of crosshairs on his noggin, and he wants to clear some of them off his back.
the insanity of capitalism (Score:1)
"This plane is a work tool."
And I actually believe he's saying the truth there. It most likely is, at least most of the time. The real question is WTF is wrong with the world that this company needs to fly its CEO around so often that from a business perspective, buying and operating a jet makes sense ?
Everwhere else, processes are streamlined, overhead is cut, workload is increased and you have to explain why you had two drinks at the business dinner instead of one. Amazon workers are told to piss into bottles to save a couple second
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An excellent question. When you need to be somewhere in person, time in transit exacts a cost. General Aviation provides much more direct, shorter routes than Commercial. Time is money.
"Work Tool" ? (Score:2)
Mouahahaha ! ...
Just have a look to where the plane stops
Work Tool? (Score:2)
If you have $133B and are still working, you are the tool.
Makes sense. (Score:2)
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At what point does it become a security risk ? (Score:2)
He wasn't thinking strategically.... (Score:1)
" other people knowing where their company jet is could give competitors an edge." So keep the plane, fly it to different destinations, confuse people monitoring the flights and fly on a rented plane instead. Seems like an obvious answer if it really is a competitive edge...
Who cares? (Score:3)
Who cares? If millions of idiots didn't buy his pointless products, he wouldn't have a plane. Concentrate on the idiots, not on the head grifter.