Abramovich 'buys A380 superjumbo'

The Paris air show in June was agog with the news that a private - and super-rich - individual had ordered an Airbus A380 superjumbo.

So, who was the mystery buyer ... a Gulf potentate, the Sultan of Brunei, Bill Gates, or perhaps Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, newly crowned as the world's richest man?

The company has refused to name names but today, however, the French newspaper Le Figaro identified the buyer as none other than Roman Abramovich, owner of Chelsea football club and Russia's richest man with a fortune of $18.7bn (£9.4bn).

The paper says he is trading up from his "little" customised Boeing 767 and taking delivery of a double-decker superjumbo in 2011.


A spokesman for Mr Abramovich refused to comment when contacted by Le Figaro and no word has yet come from Toulouse, Airbus's HQ.


But, at around $300m each officially - and substantially less in current contracts with airlines - the A380 is a snip for the oligarch. He could fly it to, say, Nice where the airport is being extended to accommodate the world's biggest plane, then go on to his superyacht in Monaco.

The A380, two years behind schedule because of technical and production problems, has won 173 orders and has its first commercial flight - operated by Singapore Airlines - in mid-October. In its standard configuration the plane, billed as the world's greenest, can seat 555 passengers but could take as many as 800 "backpackers" all sitting in economy.

Not a great incentive for Mr Abramovich, who will presumably kit it out with a gym, jacuzzi and upmarket restaurant/bar presided over by Gordon Ramsay or some other maitre de cuisine to keep his friends and business colleagues happy during the flight to the south - or Siberia.

http://money.guardian.co.uk/businessnew ... 10,00.html

I think this is a little silly, because he will be very limited in his destinations.

As with cars and yachts, he will have a fleet of various sizes for different purposes. It reports on Wikipedia that "As of early 2007 he has been using a smaller aircraft for his European travels. The Dassault Falcon 900 registration OE-IDX is instantly recognizable by the livery similar to P4-MES" So Falcon for regional travel/smaller destinations, 767 as a midsize option, and A380 for taking the whole posse from London to whatever global city he feels like (NY, LA, Hong Kong, Dubai, etc). It's good to be an oligarch!!

I wonder in which airport the beast will be based.

Tom