[potatolicious]

But assuming the jets are of roughly equal performance and capacity, can't they just sell one jet for $27M and keep the other?

Not to mention, how much is a cross-country flight in first class these days? $1500? How many execs can you fly for the cost of that airplane? (the answer: over 33,000)

That's already not including hangar, maintenance, pilot/stewardess/ground labor, nor fuel...

My guess is they can fly all their top-dog execs in first class for a clean decade for the price of that plane. I would really like to see them justify this.

[Retric]

I would so the real number of flights would be closer to infinity because the cost of maintaining and flying a private jet across the country is more than the cost of the first class tickets. Also the interest / depreciation on that 50 million works out to ~3 million a year which is 2,000 / 12 people = 166 first class flights by it's self. Double that if you only average 6 people.

[potatolicious]

Yeah... I imagine it would cost more than $18,000 to fly a plane-load of people across the country. Not to mention the fact that you need to keep pilots and other crew on-staff even when the plane is on the ground... the costs just don't add.

Makes you wonder why they bother. Last I checked first class was still plenty pampered.

[moe]

Ehm you don't really wonder why they "bother", do you?