A millionaire is as a millionaire does! Businessman Stephen Prince, who gave up his private jet for the good of the environment, is not happy. The tycoon lamented about flying commercial and thanked his stars for having friends who own smaller private jets. The vice-chair of the Patriotic Millionaires hopes to fly luxuriously in private planes two or three times a year. Prince is selling Cessna 650 Citation III jet, estimated to cost $1 million and between $275,000 and $300,000 to run. ‘I was gobsmacked by the fact that by being so in love with private air travel, I was willing to ignore what a horrible travesty I was perpetrating on the environment and on future generations,’ he told CNN.
‘It’s just absolutely the best way to travel,’ he said of the exclusive means of transportation. But I’m going to give it up, I’m just going back to flying commercially, as much as I despise the process after having flown privately for the last six or seven years.’ He threw light on the annoyance of flying commercial, ‘TSA, long lines, canceled flights, lost luggage – I despise all the things that go along with it, and when you fly first class, it’s not cheap, either. But I made my decision back in March this year and I’m sticking with it, I’m selling it, I’m going to aggressively get rid of it.’
While Prince, pun intended, suffers by traveling first-class instead of going solo on an aircraft that emits at least ten times more pollutants than commercial planes per passenger, he admitted to occasionally dipping his toe into his old ways. ‘I have a friend who’s going to let me lease his smaller aircraft,’ Prince said. ‘It’s a twin turbo, which burns about a fourth of the amount of fuel of the Cessna – and I’m only going to use it two or three times a year to go out to a pheasant hunting preserve in the northwest corner of Nebraska.’ If there was a medal for hypocrisy, we know who would be taking it home!
Stephen Prince is the Vice-Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires-
The businessman founded National Business Products, now called Card Marketing Services, in 1993. His firm focused on finding innovative print solutions for the payments industry’s credit, debit, and prepaid segments. With time, his company evolved from providing heavy paper print offerings to printed plastic cards and support material. Today, Steven Prince travels the lengths and breadths of the United States to deliver his “gift card gospel” to sales staff, merchant clients, and potential platform partners. Over the years, Prince has owned half a dozen private jets and loathed commercial travel. Nonetheless, his $ 1 million Cessna is listed for sale and should find a buyer quickly.
