Why CEOs Love Their Jets

Abercrombie’s CEO allegedly requires ‘clean shaven’ male models in flip-flops on his private jet. His company’s stock is sliding. Daniel Gross on the distracting perks of flying high. What is it with CEOs and their jets? Many of them seem to take greater interest in aviation than in the nuts-and-bolts of corporate operations.

The latest cringe-worthy example: Bloomberg reported  on the highly-detailed specifications that Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries required for the flight crews on the company’s corporate jet.

“Clean-shaven males had to wear a uniform of Abercrombie polo shirts, boxer briefs, flip-flops and a ‘spritz’ of the retailer’s cologne,” according to a manual that has come to light through an age-discrimination lawsuit brought by a former pilot. (Abercrombie did not directly employ pilots for the corporate jet.) The 40-page set of “Aircraft Standards” also prescribed the color of gloves attendants should use (black when putting out silverware, white when setting a table), detailed menus for Jeffries’ three dogs, and instructions on diction: the men should say “no problem” instead of “sure.”

Jeffries is apparently a frequent flyer as well as a fastidious and exacting one. As Bloomberg reported: “In 2010, the board agreed to pay him $4 million to limit [Jeffries’] personal use of the company jet to $200,000 annually beginning with the fiscal year ended Jan. 29, 2011.” All this at a company whose stock has fallen by half in the last 12 months.

CEOs are very comfortable delegating the running of vast enterprises to others. But they often obsess over the smallest details surrounding private jets: what they look like, who gets to use them, how much they have to pay to fly. In fact, the private jet—a Gulfstream, a Hawker-Beechcraft—occupies a central role in American corporate culture. CEOs may not get too exorcised about a falling stock price or declining market share. But try to take away their plane, and they’ll scream bloody murder. “The aircraft perk tends to be the most valued of any of what’s provided to senior executives,” says David Wise, senior principal in Hay Group, a consulting firm. The Hay Group found that in 2011, 68 percent of executives of large companies had personal use of a private aircraft—making it the most popular perk.  

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