Former Virgin America CEO and Jaunted interview subjectFred Reid just, uh, landed a new job as the head of two private aviation firms. He'll start running Dallas-based Skyjet and Flexjet on August 25.
Skyjet is a charter service, while Flexjet offers fractional jet ownership. Both are owned by Bombardier.
Reid was with Virgin before it launched to do fundraising and handle reams of paperwork--but had to step down in February because of regulatory fears that he was secretly working for Richard Branson. (He wasn't.) He left a unique mark on VA, though: One of the carrier's jets is now the "Fred, White & Blue."
Finally! Someone looks as sloppy boarding a flight as we do! Pete Wentz and his pregnant wife Ashlee Simpson boarded a private jet in Lake Tahoe on Monday wearing about nine layers combined.
No micropurse for the mom-to-be: She's got enough stuff to be entertained no matter where they're headed.
Ashlee's singer sister Jessica Simpson trailed behind wearing Daisy Dukes and high heels, with a bodyguard carrying her Louis Vuitton as she cradled her Maltese. And she's supposed to be the country one?
With summer air travel getting even more out of control, it's nice to fantasize about having a jet of one's own. Gourmet meals, a row to yourself, the knowledge that your plane will leave on time... oh, the comforts money can buy. Of course, once you get your plane, you need a place to land it -- which, as John Travolta is discovering, can be an insurmountable hurdle.
An avid pilot for years, Travolta likes to park his Boeing 707 in Ocala, Florida, where he has his own taxi way and runway near his $8 million home (and the Clearwater world headquarters of Scientology, incidentally). Too bad for the actor that Greystone Airport, which oversees his runway, has told Travolta his bird no longer welcome at the airport. The plane was deemed too big, and is causing major damage to the runway. Guess Travolta will spend his summer vacation in the security line with the unwashed masses landing his Hummer like plane at one of his other homes.
Enough with the A380. For those of you who prefer your jets petite, and extra-petite at that, Very Light Jet Magazine is here. Founder Bill Strait is a veteran pilot and aviation enthusiast who can't wait for VLJs to fly us into the future, or something like that. (He also hates 'spensive airport WiFi like us and, unlike us, has a book coming out called VERY LIGHT JETS: Our Air Taxis Into The Future.)
The Very Light Jet Magazine website contains Strait's blog, a collection of industry interviews (the latest with Cessna CEO Jack Pelton), a database of VLJ models, and a news section that will keep you up-to-date on all VLJ happenings.
Florida-based DayJet, the largest buyer of the Eclipse 500 model, is raring launch a VLJ air taxi service.
It's a sad day for travel bloggers when some filthy-rich bastard gets a bedroom in his private jet--an Airbus A380, to be exact--that's bigger than our apartments. On the flip side, we'll be happily wasting the rest of the day away drooling over the pictures. Gizmodo points us to some more information about the private A380 that was commissioned by an Arab oil magnate and professionally designed by Edése Doret. The plane includes two dining halls, a game room, a bar, a whirlpool, and other assorted bling. The A380 is intended to carry up to 555 passengers on commercial flights. Just think about how one of them was purchased for just one dude.
He's back in the ring folks! After 2005's phone throwing incident in NYC, Russell Crowe is apparently defending himself regarding allegations he threw a fit over the inflight food he was served on a private jet during a promotional tour for A Good Year.
A flight attendant claims Crowe freaked out when his wife, Danielle Spencer, was given the only meal (of chicken satay) left while on a private jet together. He wanted it for himself, and we know this man likes to get what he wants. The attendant says Crowe responded with:
"If I tell you I want something, you put it aside for me. Or wake me up. Is there some kind of language barrier here?'"
Crowe, together with his LA-based lawyers, issued a 5-page denial and his lawyers have said he was "nothing less than a model citizen during the publicity tour." Hm, we just have a hard time believing him. The Mrs. probably should have just sacrificed the satay and given thanks she wasn't flying commercial or eating the food that comes along with it.
Joe Sharkey was put in a unique position when he found himself in the middle of a tragic airplane collision but survived to write about it for the New York Times. The private jet he was traveling on collided with a much larger Boeing 737, yet the smaller plane remained virtually unharmed, while the larger one crashed, killing all on board.
Today, Sharkey reports on the fate of the private jet's pilots, Joe Lepore and Jan Paladino, who are still being detained in Brazil. We know, "detained in Brazil" sounds like an excuse for a Carnival hangover, but this is serious. The pilots work for ExcelAire Service, a New York charter company. The plane they were flying when it collided with the Gol Airlines 737, a new Embraer Legacy 600, was meant to be delivered to ExcelAire as a new addition to its fleet.
Lepore and Paladino are holed up in a hotel in Rio (no word which one), amid rumors (refuted by Sharkey) that they were performing "illegal aerial stunt maneuvers to show off the new plane when the collision occurred." Sharkey and others suspect that Brazilians are "dragging their feet" to avoid blaming their own air traffic controllers for the tragic incident. The pilots could be detained for as long as an additional ten months, and United States investigators are not allowed to release their findings until the Brazilians do the same.
Exotic Flights is apparently a private jet service like any other, save for its old-school "sexy" flight attendants. According to his website, CEO Rudy Gonzalez has worked "logistics and security" for entertainers such as Mike Tyson and Christina Aguilera. We couldn't find much about them through Google, save this bit (fourth item down).
So, was this actually an SNL skit, or what? When we first found this commercial, we automatically assumed it was a mile-high call-girl service--maybe it had something to do with their "by the hour" rates and extensive "flight attendant" online picture gallery. After that, we figured it was a joke. Then we figured it was a real company's cheesy gimmick. Now we can't decide, but we're too scared to call them and find out.
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