Bernard Arnault’s private jet trips caused considerable buzz a few years ago. Now, the man at the head of the biggest fortune in France has found another solution for his plane journeys…
Bernard Arnault’s private jet trips not only consumed kerosene, they also caused a lot of ink to be spilled. For several months, his plane journeys were scrutinized in real time on social networks by Twitter accounts like “I Fly Bernard”. Enough to trigger a huge buzz about the environmental impact of its private jets. Four years after the controversy, the boss of LVMH dotted the i’s in the show Legend.
Bernard Arnault, singled out for his jet trips: “I solved the problem”
Faced with the scale of the buzz triggered by his numerous trips on a private jet, a Bombardier Global Express worth 48 million euros, Bernard Arnault opted for a radical solution. “The private jet, I solved the problem. A few years ago I sold it. I no longer have a private jet“, he blurted.
But the boss of LVMH, whose fortune amounts to 121.2 billion euros according to Challengescontinues to travel regularly by plane, particularly for business: “When we go around the world, we go to three or four cities in China, then we go to Macau, Seoul, Japan, sometimes Los Angeles… We do that in a week, impossible to do by airliner“.
So, the businessman married to concert pianist Hélène Mercier resorted to another method: he rented a plane for periods when he had to travel a lot. “There are tons of jet companies. And no one can spot me“, specified the man at the head of the biggest fortune in France.
Bernard Arnault: a second class trip? “It doesn’t bother me.”
But the native of Roubaix wants to make it known that he is not attached to luxury at all costs. Incredible but true: he has even had to travel second class on a train. “Because there was no more room, but that doesn’t bother me. I was at a friend’s funeral in Brussels“, he remembered.
That day, the father of five children, from two different unions, was traveling with one of his sons, who immediately noticed the presence of the leader of Mediapart on the train. “I’m going to tell him that you’re on the train because he keeps making terrible articles about you because you’re taking the jet to go from Paris to Brussels“, his son exclaimed. “Well… there was no article“, regretted Bernard Arnault. Perhaps for a future trip?
