Not even 10,000-euro discounts can persuade Romanians entrepreneurs to buy a plane now

Despite introducing "crisis offers", this year private aircraft importers could no longer match the sales of 2008, when two Romanian businessmen bought the most expensive private jets ever registered in our country, for 60m euros, reads Business Magazin magazine.
Beyond the symbolic value, that of a sign of personal wealth, the usefulness of such a plane is beyond doubt.
Many businesspeople say that between a yacht and a plane they would prefer the latter anytime.
A private plane costs a small fortune, in the context where the price of a new plane does not go below 200,000 euros. In the case of used private jets, prices are much lower, even dropping to several tens of thousand euros.
For ordinary people, prices are unaffordable, but for businesspeople, as they are the main target of those selling private jets, they are reasonable given that the number of owners has surged at a sustained pace in recent years.
From 2001 until last year, the number of private jets registered in Romania reached 84, meaning around 80 businesspeople that use their own jet, because some of them own more than one model.
The Bombardier Global 5000 is the most expensive private jet owned by a Romanian, with its price topping 40m dollars.
In many of the cases, the owner of the jet is also the one piloting it.
This year, though, potential buyers have become more cautious. So far, Cirrus Aviation has sold four jets for prices of between 260,000 and 600,000 euros. However, none of these jets were sold this year, despite the "crisis offers" that were launched. Though it seems an odd concept when associated with luxury goods, the need for such offers was equally felt here as on the mass product market. However, the targeted buyers remained insensitive to price cuts as 10,000 euros is not much compared with the high prices.
While speed, comfort and the relatively low maintenance costs are serious reasons to buy a private jet, owners are complaining about the too high taxes Romanian airports levy for landings.