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Crazy rich Indians and their private jets: how the Ambanis, Bollywood royals the Bachchans and the Poonawallas travel in luxury and style
STORYP Ramakrishnan
- Mukesh Ambani owns at least three private planes, including a US$73 million Boeing Business Jet, while Lakshmi Mittal spends millions every year on his Gulfstream
- Bollywood’s Bachchans and Akshay Kumar are regularly spotted jumping out of private jets, as is Natasha Poonawala, but who rents and who owns their wings?
Guess what? The richest residents of India do not fly commercial. Around 1,000 VVIPs fly private jets, choppers and glamorous Gulfstreams as they zoom over palaces and capitals around the world.
According to a leading business magazine, India now has 209 billionaires studded around the country. Luxury cars and homes aside, they enjoy travelling in rarefied bubbles between hearth and heaven. Here’s a look at some of the super jet set.
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The Ambanis
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With a net worth of US$81 billion, Mukesh Ambani is the richest man in India and Asia, and as of this moment he is 11th richest person in the world. And we know he knows how to spend it. So naturally the man (and his family) hasn’t seen a commercial plane unless it’s in his eye line as his pilot docks one of the three Ambani jets; the family owns a Boeing Business Jet, Falcon 900EX jet and an Airbus 319, according to media reports.
Of the three, the Boeing Business Jet is the cream of the crop, costing a whopping US$73 million, and is equipped with a private bedroom suite and a plush executive office to match Air Force One.
He is, of course, not the only Indian tycoon high flyer. The jet set of India includes the usual suspects: politicians, businessmen and Bollywood-ites. Heading the celebrity list is the first family of Bollywood, the Bachchans.
The Bachchans