Wealth
has never been a sufficient source of honor in itself. It must be advertised,
and the normal medium is obtrusively expensive goods, like a private jet.
As an end, the acquisition of a private by an individual may be deemed extreme,
ignoble too perhaps if acquired by a bank. The latter is expected, among other things, to be frugal and inclined to deploy its enormous financial resources as a means of enabling it to do some good in today’s bleak and impoverished world.
As an end, the acquisition of a private by an individual may be deemed extreme,
ignoble too perhaps if acquired by a bank. The latter is expected, among other things, to be frugal and inclined to deploy its enormous financial resources as a means of enabling it to do some good in today’s bleak and impoverished world.
A private jet, however, constitutes a severe strain on a
company’s resources; aviation specialists demonstrate that owning an aircraft
outright is relatively expensive. For example, companies such as Air Partner,
the world’s largest aircraft chartering firm, point out that business jets can
be chartered for about £2,100 per hour. And it says they are always available
and there are no on-going costs.
By contrast, it estimates that the true hourly cost of owning an
aircraft with a purchase price of just £7m stands at about £7,700 per hour.
That assumes an annual usage of 200 hours and takes into account the cost of
capital, annual depreciation, annual fixed costs, and hourly variable costs
such as fuel, landing fees, crew salaries and handling fees.
The mean average wealth for a jet owner is $1.5 billion and
almost 20 percent of private aviation users work in finance and banking,
worldover.
Trust the Nigerian banker never to be left out; aircraft usage
by a local bank Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) may be less – as the aircrafts
are often left idling in the hanger – thus increasing the hourly cost and
making its acquisition extravagant and reckless.
Keeping a private jet on standby is undoubtedly a costly
enterprise that even the mega banks are wary of undertaking, globally but
Nigerian banks are unperturbed by the steep cost of such indulgences.
According to new research, the cost of owning and maintaining a
private jet is so great that the estimated mean average wealth of its prospectiv
e owner is calculated at around $1.5 billion. Much less than that and the
numbers simply don’t stack up.
For example, a long-range Falcon 2000DX is estimated to cost
around $40 million, and that’s only the upfront purchase price. This has led to
the rise of alternative models such as a membership program, fractional
ownership or buying by the hour.
But these cost-saving measures do not appeal to Nigerian banks
splurging on the steel vessels that their CEOs might deploy them as taxis to
and fro official and mostly unofficial engagements.
As private jet acquisition becomes more trendy and attains a
frenzy among the country’s top banks, pundits counsel that bank CEOs and their
boardroom associates should consult their rational faculties more often in the
discharge of their duties.
The question on everyone’s lips is: “Why even purchase a private
jet? Could first class commercial travel not offer all the comfort needed, at a
fraction of the cost?”
Of course, bank apologists would cite deletion of waiting time,
and the facility for the CEOs to drive right up to the tarmac and fly at short
notice; they would also allege that private jet travel is safer in terms of
operation and maintenance of the aircraft.
But such excuses fly in the face of reason in a country like
Nigeria where struggling banks splurge on private jets as a means of ennobling
their CEOs and announcing their entrance into the pantheon of the country’s
filthy rich.
At a time when bankers in the United States of America are
facing tougher rules on transparency, bonuses and the use of corporate jets
among others, in response to the global financial credit crunch, chief
executives of Nigerian banks appear to have intensified their contest for
status with their current private jet acquisition spree.
This, no doubt, conflicts with the hitherto conservative nature
of the banking profession and bankers’ fabled capacity to spend in line with
necessity.
The private jet is ultimately a status conferer to the Nigerian
bank CEO; and neither he nor his bank gives a hoot if it hurts the bank,
shareholders and mostly impoverished clientele in the long run.
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