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Saudi Prince To Buy, Outfit 'Flying Palace'

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By BARBARA SURK and ANNA JOHNSON, The Associated Press

Published: November 13, 2007

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates - In the annals of excess, it could be a new high: a more than $300 million, supersized luxury airplane, bought and outfitted solely for the comfort of a Saudi Arabian billionaire.

Once done, the Airbus A380, the world's biggest passenger plane, will be a "flying palace" for Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the manufacturer announced Monday.

Airbus SAS would not give a price tag for the VIP double-decker jet with its football field-length wings, saying only that it would cost more than the aircraft's list price of $320 million.

That doesn't even include the money the prince will spend to custom fit the nearly 6,000-square-foot plane. The options include private bedrooms, a movie theater or even a gym with a Jacuzzi. He will also need a flight crew of about 15 to operate the luxury liner.

"Prince Alwaleed is the first, and so far the only, customer of this aircraft," said David Velupillai, a spokesman for Airbus, which announced the luxury order at the Dubai International Airshow.

It's all just spending cash for bin Talal, Citigroup's biggest individual shareholder and the world's 13th richest person with assets of about $20 billion.

As a member of the Saudi royal family, he benefits from the country's vast oil wealth. But much of bin Talal's fortune comes from his investment firm, the $25 billion Kingdom Holding Co., which has stakes in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., Fairmont Raffles Hotels International, Time Warner, Apple, PepsiCo and Walt Disney, to name a few major corporations.

The prince already is the only private owner of a Boeing 747-400, Airbus said.

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