High Flyers and Soaring Inequality
by Robert Weissman / July 2nd, 2008

Private and corporate jet sales are taking off, reflecting an increase in
the extreme concentration of wealth in the United States and around the
world.

Worldwide sales of private jets have more than doubled since 2003, to $19.4
billion in 2007. The number of jets sold increased 28 percent between 2006
and 2007 alone, and sales are up sharply in the first quarter of 2008.
Corporate jet ownership has increased by about 70 percent since the early
1990s. Demand for private jets is so high that a used jet bought in 2006 can
now be sold at a handsome profit.

But where luxury items like a fancy bottle of wine or a Picasso painting are
simply a private extravagance, private jet use imposes real costs on
everyone who isn't a high flyer - and on the planet. The costs are
documented in "High Flyers: How Private Jet Travel is Straining the System,
Warming the Planet and Costing You Money," a new report issued today by the
Institute of Policy Studies and Essential Action (an organization I direct).