Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. jumped into the slumping private-jet market again with a record order valued at $9.6 billion, betting on a rebound later this decade with a third plane purchase in less than two years.
Buying as many as 425 jets from Bombardier Inc. and Textron Inc.’s Cessna will bolster Berkshire’s NetJets in “a long-term bet on the global economy,” chief executive Jordan Hansell said Tuesday on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop.”
Deliveries will start as soon as 2014 as NetJets refreshes a fleet of more than 700 planes. The Columbus, Ohio-based company probably won favorable terms as planemakers work to rebuild order backlogs, said Michel Merluzeau, a consultant for G2 Solutions in Seattle. NetJets’ transaction covers as many as 275 Bombardier Challenger aircraft, including 100 firm orders. The Cessna portion of the deal consists of as many as 150 Citation Latitude jets, of which 25 orders are firm, according to a statement.
