Steve Jobs Travel Update: Private Jet Grounded This Winter

Dan Frommer | May 9, 2008 12:01 PM

Back in late February, Morgan Stanley analyst Kathryn Huberty cited Apple (AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs' plane travel as a reason to be excited about Apple and its stock.

How does Huberty know Apple is working on lots of new toys? ...Apple boss Steve Jobs is flying more.

Apple spent $550,000 on Jobs' airplane expenses -- we assume it's on the Gulfstream V he made the company give him in 2000 -- during the December quarter. That's three times the average over the previous six quarters. Jobs is "integral to negotiations with international carriers and supply chain partners," she notes. So when Steve's flying, Apple's new-gadget gears are cranking.

In the March quarter, however, Jobs' plane expenses dove to $30,000, down 95% quarter-over-quarter and down 92% year-over-year, according to a SEC filing. Yet in the last week, Apple closed some big international deals: Wireless carriers Vodafone (VOD), America Movil (AMX), and Telecom Italia announced plans to start selling the iPhone in more than 24 countries "later this year."

So:

Either Jobs did all his flying for these deals during the December quarter,
or the Vodafone, Telecom Italia, and America Movil guys flew to Cupertino,
or they didn't start working on these deals until April 1,
or Jobs is flying United (UAUA) on business,
or the Apple plane reimbursement numbers mean nothing at all!

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15 Comments

stevo said:

May. 09, 1:01 PM

These guys come up with some hilarious sheit I tell you

Alex said:

May. 09, 1:07 PM

Now that's investigative reporting! Nice!!!

Mark said:

May. 09, 1:18 PM

It is possible that he wasn't satisfied with the level of service he recieved on his private jet, so he just started flying Delta coach.

Arthur (URL) said:

May. 09, 3:04 PM

Are you really reporting this?

CM said:

May. 09, 4:32 PM

Numbers seem suspect. I don't think you can have a Gulfstream V sitting in a hangar for only 10,000 as you suggest in June 2007. Maybe he pays for his own hangar expenses when it sits on his private runways.

Alexander Muse (URL) said:

May. 09, 4:35 PM

Significant expenses related to his plane are often related to maintenance and equipment replacement. While fuel consumption is a good indicator of current usage, larger more expensive maintenance exercises often trail usage by months, if not quarters. So just because you see a half million dollar charge in a quarter, doesn't necessarily correspond to increased fuel usage during that quarter. Instead big charges can be a result of a rebuilt subsystem or engine component.

Henry Blodget said:

May. 09, 4:41 PM

Does Morgan Stanley know that? Appears not.

Jeremy Zawodny (URL) said:

May. 09, 4:59 PM

Perhaps the plane had its annual inspection and a few items came up that resulted in those high bills. For a jet that expensive, it's very reasonable.

Owners and operators of lower-end jets (like the early Cessna Citation models) can easily drop $10k/day while it's in the shop for fairly trivial work.

Anatoly said:

May. 09, 9:22 PM

Maybe he spent the money to paint it all white.

Fabrice (URL) said:

May. 10, 1:27 AM

* Or someone else negotiated the deals on Apple's behalf

JulianT said:

May. 10, 1:21 PM

I hear that iChat video conferencing is very effective. Never really tried it though.

Old Psychic said:

May. 10, 7:57 PM

Morgan Stanley will suggest that the new Iphone has transcendental functionality.