The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Intravenous drips, beetroot juice and Aztec rituals: how the super-rich deal with jet lag
Hazel Plush checks out the money-noobject wellness service offered by VistaJet, purveyor of private aviation to the A-list
If you are a chief executive being paid five million pounds a year, losing just one day to jet lag will cost the company tens of thousands – or more,” said Matteo Atti, unfazed by such extraordinary figures. “That’s why in-flight wellness isn’t an indulgence: it’s an investment. You need to be in good shape to meet your investors, or to shake hands on that billion-dollar deal.”
While the rest of us make do with eye masks and neck pillows, private jet passengers have a vast array of gizmos and advisors to help them hop between time zones. In-flight menus designed by nutritionists, on-board double beds with memory-foam mattresses, pre-departure intravenous drips to boost rehydration: in Atti’s world, these are all de rigeur. And as chief marketing officer for VistaJet, the world’s second-largest private aviation provider, he not only has firsthand experience of this way of life but is driving it forward.
We met on a grey March morning at Farnborough Airport, one of the UK’s busiest private aviation hubs – and not even the lashing rain could dampen its runway’s ritz. Gulfstreams, Embraers, Cessnas: these sleek, multi-million-dollar aircraft rested on the apron, poised to whisk the jet set to Geneva, Dubai, Aspen and beyond. But the most eye-catching plane of all was VistaJet’s Bombardier Global 7500, the largest purpose-built private jet in existence, dubbed the “Ferrari of the skies” by those in the know. Its RRP is US$75 million (£59 million), and VistaJet has 18 in its fleet – the world’s biggest single collection – each available for US$25,000 (£19,700) per hour, the flagship of its membership-based charter offering.
The company’s client list is equally eye-popping: the Clooneys, the Obamas and the Beckhams have all been spotted emerging from its silver-andred livery in recent years. Taylor Swift even made use of her own VistaJet aircraft to fly from Tokyo to the Super Bowl in Las Vegas last month, grabbing even bigger headlines than the game itself.
You might think that if you cross the globe while snoozing in the Global 7500’s double bed, or reclining in its ergonomic “zero gravity” leather seats, you will land at your destination feeling pretty sharp. “But what if you could arrive feeling better than you did when you left?”, pondered Atti rhetorically, a smooth segue to VistaJet’s new wellbeing programme, devised with the expertise of nutritionists, physicians and other health experts – and the first of its kind in the aviation world.
“We start with a 90-minute pre-flight consultation,” explained Jenna Daou, the company’s private dining specialist and a trained dietician. “I learn about the members’ lifestyle, tastes, medical history and dietary requirements, crewith ating a profile which I use to curate menus for all of their flights.”
No time for a consultation? Daou has also devised sample menus, including a Performance Athlete menu created in collaboration with F1 champion Charles Leclerc. It includes such healthy options as grilled chicken, vegetables, salmon and wholegrains – the kind of food your GP recommends. VistaJet flies Ferrari’s drivers around the world – “and they are very particular about what they eat”, Daou said.
Alternatively, the Rejuvenate menu features ingredients laden with probiotics, collagen and antioxidants – among them beetroot juice, asparagus and various fermented foods. The Revitalize menu, meanwhile, includes iron-rich organic filet mignon served rare, along with raw spinach and watercress.
Buddhism, baths and ‘biohacking’
VistaJet’s billionaire founder and chairman, Thomas Flohr, reportedly spends more than 200 days every year in flight, travelling between his many homes – as well as those of his daughter Nina, who married into Greek and Danish royalty.
The range of his aircraft is equally vast: since 2004, VistaJet’s fleet has flown to 2,400 airports across 96 per cent of all countries. “And we thought this puts the world’s greatest wellness treatments at our fingertips,” said Atti, handing me a weighty brochure entitled Private World. Its pages are filled with extraordinary in-destination experiences: think helicopter rides to Everest base camp for guided meditation Buddhist monks – or “biohacking” at Six Senses Ibiza, a programme featuring cryotherapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, both typically used by top athletes to aid muscle recovery.
If flying to Mexico, you could join a cacao ceremony – a “euphoric experience” rooted in Mayan and Aztec rituals, the brochure explains – which involves drinking pure cacao while “engaging in meditation, ecstatic dance and breathwork”. In Costa Rica, “sound bath” healing uses the vibrations of Tibetan singing bowls to “clear excess negative energy” after your journey, while in India, mangal snãn (meaning “auspicious bath”) entails oil anointments and massages accompanied by musicians, a ritual historically performed on royalty.
Inflight yoga and ‘daylight simulation’
True to brand, the Global 7500 also sports a wealth of ways to reduce the toll of air travel. I snooped inside the airy aircraft – all soft leather and polished wood, with huge windows and touch-screen temperature controls for every seat. The cabin’s “daylight simulation” lighting system uses set wavelengths to synchronise its passengers’ circadian rhythms with the timezone at their destination, and it is pressurised to mimic the altitude at 4,000ft: more forgiving than the 8,000ft typical of commercial aircraft.
“When you land, it feels like you have barely been anywhere; no bloating, no tiredness,” said Naomie Shortt, one of the cabin crew – or “Cabin Hosts” in VistaJet parlance. I peeked into the bedroom, with its highthread-count sheets and library, and wondered if Clooney had ever dribbled into its hypoallergenic pillows.
Cashmere socks, cotton pyjamas, face creams and serums by Guerlain – all are provided in-flight, as well as yoga mats, massage balls and rollers (there is more than enough room in the cabin for an ashtanga session). I had to suppress a laugh at the fourdisc yoga DVD, a Noughties throwback – provided in case you can’t stream a workout from your phone.
It is all so noble, so at-odds with the notion of a rock-n-roll private jet lifestyle. When did the 1 per cent get so wholesome? “The jet set has a reputation for excess, but that’s wholly inaccurate,” Atti replied. “Once you have tasted the best champagnes, you have tasted them all: it becomes dull, doesn’t it? But with wellness, the possibilities – and benefits – are endless.”