Steve's private jet is back in the air

Oh the laments of the ill informed and incompetent masses. You really want to complain about Steve Jobs carbon footprint flying around in a corporate jet? How about the carbon footprint of Mr Obama, his wife, and Oprah Winfrey flying 3 separate aircraft to Copenhagen (2 of them were jumbo sized airliners and required military escort). General Aviation contributes more than 1% to GDP in this country. Mr Obamas condemnation of Auto Manufacturers for flying their corporate jets to Washington to ask for bailout money caused the loss of several thousand jobs WORLDWIDE. I know this because I work for the worlds premier Business Jet manufacturer, we were forced to cut production rates, lay off employees and furlough the rest of the workforce because of his misdirection of the blame (and he still bailed the criminals out). General Aviation allows large corporations to get their assets (including CEO's) where they need to be quickly, safely, and without ridiculous transferring through hubs like the airlines do. Yes they are expensive, which is why they don't use them to shuttle low level staff from place to place, but they are necessary. The ATA has been using General Aviation as a scapegoat for the damage that they cause to transportation infrastructure. The airports with the biggest problems are those that are rarely frequented by GA because a Gulfstream V needs much less runway that a Boeing 727 and would get it's occupants much closer to their final destination by using a smaller municipal airfield (where services are generally cheaper anyway). Business jets are much quieter and have a much smaller carbon footprint (partially because they are better maintained than most of the crates that the masses are forced to fly in). Lets also remember that these aircraft are mostly being operated by profitable companies. If we are to question anybody's misuse of assets we should start with our elected officials: Nancy Pelosi turned her nose up at a Gulfstream V and instead insists on a Boeing 727 to fly her back and forth from CA to DC weekly, that is a grossly wasteful abuse of taxpayers money. Obama has been flying to the Gulf of Mexico several times in the last few weeks ... why ?? he's not going to don a wetsuit and go plug the pipeline himself, there is no need for him to be there. Even if there were he could fly down once and spend a couple of days.

Steve Jobs starting Apple Inc. and built it into what it has become today. He should be able to fly whenever and wherever he pleases. Without Jobs, Apple would have withered away in the 1990s.

LOL @ all the GREENRAGE going on here. Nothing is ever green enough for you.

Does anyone know how much the fuel costs of a typical G5 flight would cost? How many flights would it take to rack up a $580,000 tab?

@tony d:

You must really hate the Darwin Awards.


(Will someone smarter than I am please explain to me how to reply to a comment on a comment rather than to the original commenter? Why is there no Reply button on tony d's reply to my comment?)

You are an idiot!

"We all know that half of the time they spend doing these "work" related things are wasted time." What's your source for that phrase? Furthermore, since use of the corporate jet is his entire compensation as CEO (not counting the annual dollar), why does he have to work constantly on it?
Do you ever ride in a car alone? Isn't that the same?

It's not even private vs bail-out cash or even "save the earth" vs "the earth is more durable than people think."

It's about hypocrisy. Apple makes a political statement about the US Chamber of Commerce not doing enough to combat greenhouse gases by withdrawing from the CoC. Now, they go and do the opposite of what could be the company's EASIEST step in doing its part of reducing gas emissions.

But instead, it's typical elitist entitlement desire over substance.


I don't care which way the Apple execs go, but to get any points with me, they can't say we all should live one way and they do the opposite. Lead by example or quit spewing hot air (and I'm not talking about jet exhaust).

Yes, most of the political leaders and the sportsman started acquiring the private jets as they need to save their time and money.
http://www.247jet.com/

What's the limit? 10? 20? How many people have to be on board before you will allow a plane to take off?