Famous Celebrity Moving Up to a 10X, or Hunkering Down From Stalkers?

Internationally famed pop star Taylor Swift was noted to be selling off her Dassault Falcon 900LX to the tune of $millions, igniting speculation that the singer may also be turning to private charters in a bid to beef up her privacy (though she still owns a Falcon 7X).

She has not weighed in to correct the matter, leading to plenty of conjecture. Her public profile has grown beyond her pop-country bonafides in the wake of a running relationship with a Super Bowl-bound NFL player Travis Kelce has put Swift on the radar of many, particularly the hall monitors of carbon emissions. Private journalists and followers have tracked Swift's movements with precision, totaling up her fuel use and pollutant generation throughout her travels. As such, people have speculated Swift is offloading aircraft owned and operated in-house, and will be moving to a charter arrangement to obscure her location and movements. One follower online was even served by a firm representing Swift, who said the 21-year-old college student's private journalism was providing "individuals intent on harming [Swift] with a roadmap to carry out their plans".

It's an interesting and dramatic tack to take in the aftermath of the post-2020 bizjet bonanza, an exciting game of cat-and-mouse involving stalkers, creepers and stars in the high-stakes world of public relations. It's a good narrative for fractional and charter operators too, a story that tells John Q. Public that they too can have a piece of the private jet life for a smaller price tag than outright ownership requires. Charter operators grew their profile and clientele in leaps and bounds as lockdown procedures went into effect during COVID's heyday, finding plenty of new customers in the disgruntled but well-heeled flying public. It would make some sense, a singer gaining notoriety beyond any previous measure suddenly washing her hands of having her own name on the ADS-B track - but Swift has kept her Dassault Falcon 7X, with no plans to sell yet.

Perhaps a more measured, sensible (ergo, boring) approach to the question is that Swift is merely preparing to snag the latest and greatest from Dassault when the 10X is ready. The Falcon 900LX, fine aircraft though it is, falls short of the luxury of its late-model 7X sibling, and Swift has apparently tapped the latter for the majority of her missions in recent years. Upgrading to a truly intercontinental, comfy business jet in the larger widebody Falcon 10X seems very likely for a singer at the peak of her game - and Dassault undoubtedly has its fingers crossed. Starting off the 10X's lifetime with such a high-profile customer would be a great way to usher the biggest and best Falcon into service.

FMI: www.dassault-aviation.com