Saudi Prince Alwaleed buys his own A380 jumbo jet

[babylonsister]

Saudi Prince Alwaleed buys his own A380 jumbo jet


An Airbus A380 on display at the 2007 Dubai air show.
Enlarge image Enlarge By Karim Sahib, AFP/Getty Images


By Tim Hepher, Reuters

PARIS — Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has become the first person to buy the ultimate status symbol — his own A380 superjumbo jet.

Planemaker Airbus named the Saudi royal, whose interests span hotels and banking and the operator of Disneyland Paris, as the mystery buyer of a VIP version dubbed the Flying Palace.

The buyer's identity had been secret for months but was announced to coincide with the Dubai air show Monday.

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Price of the deal was not disclosed. Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich recently denied buying the plane, which costs more than $300 million to airlines.

Prince Alwaleed confirmed the order despite seeing $2.5 billion wiped off his personal fortune the past month due to a slide in the shares of U.S. banking group Citigroup (C).

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http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/travel/2007-11-12-prince-alwaleed-a380_N.htm?csp=34