Introduction
A private jet is the clearest single marker of where entertainment money ends up, and the most consistently misreported. Headline figures circulate without anyone saying whether they refer to the list price of a new aircraft, the cost of converting a second-hand airliner, or somebody’s guess. Ownership is reported just as loosely: several of the most famous celebrity aircraft in the world are not owned by the celebrity whose name is painted on them.
This list gives the aircraft, who actually holds the registration where that is known, and which kind of number the figure is.
How to Read These Numbers
One check is available to anyone: aircraft registration is public. Every entry below can be tested against the national register of the country the aircraft is registered in, which is how the Air Drake ownership question resolves – the airframe carries a Cargojet registration, not a personal one (Cargojet’s own announcement, the HARS Aviation Museum documents the Travolta donation in the same way, as does Vintage Aviation News).
Four different figures get quoted interchangeably and they are not comparable. The list price is what the manufacturer charges for a new aircraft. The conversion cost applies when an airliner is refitted as a private aircraft and can exceed the airframe’s value. A media valuation is a number attributed to an aircraft by press reporting, often without a source, and is the least reliable. Running costs are separate again: industry guidance puts the annual cost of operating a large-cabin business jet at roughly one to four million dollars before a single flight, covering crew, hangarage, insurance and maintenance, with engine overhauls adding very large periodic bills.
One further complication runs through everything below. Aircraft are routinely held through corporate entities, leased rather than owned, or chartered out when the celebrity is not using them, which changes both the tax position and the answer to who owns the aeroplane.
1. Drake – Boeing 767-200 ‘Air Drake’ – Registered to Cargojet, Not to Drake
The most famous celebrity aircraft in the world is not owned by the celebrity. Air Drake is a Boeing 767-200 registered N767CJ to the Canadian cargo airline Cargojet, which announced the arrangement itself in 2019, naming Drake a brand ambassador and saying it would assist him with his logistical requirements (Cargojet’s own announcement). Figures around 185 million dollars are widely quoted and refer to the airframe plus its custom conversion, not to a purchase by Drake. He flies it extensively; he did not buy it.
2. Taylor Swift – Dassault Falcon 7X – $53 Million New, Far Less Used
Swift owns a Dassault Falcon 7X registered N621MM. The figure usually attached to it is the type’s new list price of about 53 million dollars, but the 7X has been in service since 2007 and used examples trade at roughly 25 to 35 million (Corporate Jet Investor) – so the headline number materially overstates the value of any particular airframe, including hers. She sold a second aircraft in early 2024 following sustained criticism of her flight emissions, so the fleet is now smaller than during the Eras Tour years. The tour is the practical explanation for the flight volume that put her at the top of celebrity flight-tracking rankings: moving a production of that size between continents on a fixed schedule is not achievable on commercial aviation.
3. Jay-Z and Beyonce – Bombardier Challenger 850 – A $40 Million Gift, Worth a Fraction Today
Beyonce gave Jay-Z a Bombardier Challenger 850 for Father’s Day in 2012, reported at around 40 million dollars and among the more extravagant gifts in modern celebrity history. The 850 is converted from a regional airliner airframe, which gives it a notably larger cabin than a purpose-built business jet at a similar price. It is also the clearest illustration on this list of how steeply these aircraft depreciate: production ended in 2012, there is no current list price, and used examples now change hands at around 7.2 million dollars (Corporate Jet Investor). A gift reported at 40 million is worth a fraction of that today, which is one reason adding purchase prices to a net-worth figure overstates it.
4. Kim Kardashian – Gulfstream G650ER – Owned, List Price About $70 Million
Kardashian’s G650ER, which she has called Kim Air, is frequently reported at around 150 million dollars. That figure does not withstand scrutiny: a new G650ER lists at roughly 70 million, so the quoted number appears to fold in a bespoke interior finished in her signature neutral palette, or is simply inflated in circulation. The aircraft is real and hers; the valuation is the least reliable figure on this list.
5. Kylie Jenner – Gulfstream G650 – Owned, About $72 Million
Jenner’s G650, nicknamed Kylie Air, is reported at roughly 72 million dollars. It has attracted more criticism than any other aircraft here, largely over widely publicised very short flights, and she became one of the focal points of the argument about private aviation and emissions that intensified once flight-tracking accounts began publishing celebrity movements from public transponder data.
6. John Travolta – Boeing 707-138B – Former Owner, Donated to a Museum
Travolta is the most serious aviator on this list and his best-known aircraft is no longer his. His Boeing 707-138B, registered N707JT and named Jett Clipper Ella, was delivered to Qantas in 1964, one of only thirteen built in that shortened configuration, and was later converted for private use. He announced its donation to the HARS Aviation Museum in New South Wales in 2017 (HARS Aviation Museum), and the aircraft was dismantled in Georgia in 2026 for shipment to Australia (Vintage Aviation News). He holds multiple type ratings and has owned a series of other aircraft over the years.
7. Oprah Winfrey – Bombardier Global Express – Reported Owner
Winfrey has flown a Bombardier Global Express for years, an ultra-long-range aircraft with a list price historically in the 50 to 60 million dollar range depending on variant and fit. As with most aircraft on this list, the holding is understood to sit within a corporate structure rather than in her own name, and the specifics have never been confirmed publicly, so this entry rests on consistent reporting rather than on a disclosed transaction.
8. Tom Cruise – Gulfstream Business Jet, Plus a Fighter That Is Not a Jet
Cruise is regularly listed for his P-51 Mustang, which is worth clarifying: the Mustang is a propeller-driven Second World War fighter, not a private jet, and it exists as a collector’s aircraft rather than as transport. It appeared in Top Gun: Maverick and he flies it himself. His actual business aircraft has been reported as a Gulfstream, and he has held a fixed-wing licence since 1994 along with a helicopter rating. Restored Mustangs trade in the low millions, an order of magnitude below the business jets above, so the two should never appear in the same ranking without that distinction.
9. What the Purchase Price Leaves Out
Every figure above is an acquisition or conversion value and every one of them understates the cost of ownership. Annual fixed costs run well into six and seven figures before a single flight hour is priced, and an engine overhaul programme can run to seven figures on its own. How much is genuinely contested: for one midsize class, published fixed-cost estimates ranged from about 460,000 dollars to 1.2 million a year depending on who was counting (Conklin & de Decker, the National Business Aviation Association). If the industry’s own analysts differ by nearly a factor of three on running costs, a single confident number for a celebrity’s aircraft should be read with care. This is why chartering, fractional ownership and management arrangements are so common at this level, and why apparent ownership is often a commercial arrangement rather than a purchase. The Drake example is the clearest case: the most famous celebrity aircraft in the world belongs to a cargo airline.