Flight style for the rich and famous
WEALTHY Gold Coast residents could soon be flying to Queenstown in New Zealand by sanitised private jet if an American-born developer’s ambitious plan takes off.
Kevin Carlin, pianist and former caterer to the stars, has set up company Private Jets and teed up a Queensland-based Dassault Falcon 500 charter jet to fly out of Coolangatta.
Mr Carlin estimates oneway flights to the NZ tourism hotspot will cost $2700, and the plan already has struck a chord with at least one potential user.
Targeted passengers include guests travelling to a six-star boutique hotel in Queenstown which cost $1150 to $2000 a night.
Mr Carlin said he had met Queenslanders who owned holiday homes worth up to $5 million in Queenstown.
“They are the sort of people who will be willing to pay to fly in a sanitary private jet if it’s shared with only 12 other travellers,” he said.
“They will get superior service, with quality food and drink, and won’t have to go through the airport terminal – the customs agent will go to the private-jet lounge.”
Mr Carlin said as a result of COVID-19, he did not want to use commercial airports or commercial airlines, which really were public transport.
The charter jet, which might also fly out of other eastern seaboard cities, was divided into compartments seating three, four and six passengers, with ample spacing between them. It would be “fogged” and cleaned before every flight and passenger temperatures would be checked before boarding.
Fellow Gold Coast developer John Potter, who has a Queenstown residence, said he was sure the private flights would “be a goer”.
“There would be less waiting time in airports – you’d go straight in, and that would be very attractive, he said. “I’d probably use the service and I know others who would.”
Mr Carlin’s seven-suite Queenstown Views Villa hotel is under way on an elevated site, and will offer guests services such as a butler service and in-room chef dining.
Also as a partner in a planned 61-room Radisson hotel in central Queenstown, he set up marketing company Ultra Properties on the Gold Coast in 2013 and it sold Tallebudgera Valley mansion Bellagio La Villa to Chinese billionaire Riyu Li for $7.2 million.
The son of a composer became a talented pianist and wrote the music for a tribute CD to Princess Diana, recording it with the NZ and Christchurch symphony orchestras. He also ran a catering business that provided backstage food services to stars such as Van Halen, The Police, Tom Petty, Foreigner and Olivia Newton-John.