And then there’s the cost of keeping the Dassault aloft: $5,700 an hour, to be precise. American inventor Bill Lear pioneered the first private jets in the 1950s, and corporations and the superrich have purchased pre-owned planes the same way ever since: They go to brokers with established networks of mechanics, owners and pilots who informally know who’s looking to sell.
Varsano, who worked as an executive under financier Nelson Peltz in the 1990s, decided to augment the old way of quietly brokering used aircraft and go retail at the most visible spot he could find. The aeronautical impresario has taken a huge risk in leasing premium real estate in one of the priciest markets in the world, but he’s betting the fancy digs will give him an edge against rival brokers chasing the same small pool of buyers and sellers.
Byzantine Complexity
Varsano’s first step in making a sale is matching a prospective buyer with the most suitable plane. If the client needs to make monthly commutes from London to Lima, for instance, Varsano uses his screens to show him which planes on the market can fly the 5,490 nautical miles each way without stopping, how many passengers they can carry and even how their interiors are configured. Varsano also breaks down how much it’s going to cost on a per-mile basis for fuel, maintenance and the salaries for pilots and crew and then compares the figure with those of other models.
And that’s the easy part. In a marketplace as far-flung as flying, deals can quickly turn byzantine in their complexity. Varsano still marvels at the time he brokered a sale in which a Russian sold his Switzerland-based jet using a Panamanian shell company to a Chinese buyer who had the plane inspected in Germany; a team of American and British lawyers managed the transaction.
“The seller finally begged me to stop copying him on any more deal documents,” Varsano says.
Next Stop: Space
The Jet Business’s unorthodox approach appears to be catching on. Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. recently opened its own showroom in Mayfair, catering to prospective new-jet buyers from all over the world. There, buyers can select what type of Baccarat crystal and Hermes china they want to use in their eight-passenger G650s and whether to go with cherry or walnut wood for their furnishings and accents.
“London is a stopover for our clients outside the U.S., and now we don’t have to meet them anymore in hotel conference rooms,” says Tray Crow, Gulfstream’s director of interior design.
Meanwhile, Varsano is already eyeing an even loftier marketplace -- the thermosphere. As a director on the board of Virgin Galactic, the commercial-space-flight venture backed by Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, Varsano is set to blast 68 miles above the earth’s surface by the end of next year.