Private jet broker reveals the shopping habits of the super rich – from spending $2 million per month on clothes to sipping on $6,000 bottles of wine

The founder of a private jet charter company has revealed some of the shopping habits of the super-rich, detailing the staggering amounts they spend on clothes, wine and other luxury goods.

Ameerh Naran is the founder and CEO of Vimana Private Jets, according to the TimesHis company works for ‘ultra high net worth individuals’ and arranges luxurious private jets for them.

Speaking to the newspaper, he discussed how these wealthy people spend their money – and where.

According to Ameerh, more and more wealthy people are choosing to spend their money abroad, which means fewer people are spending it in the UK.

And the numbers he’s talking about are significant: the average Vimana customer spends a whopping $1,000,000 a month on “personal family travel.”

The extravagance doesn’t stop there, according to Ameerh, who said: ‘We are targeting the very top end of private jet travel. The amount they spend on shopping is much more than what they pay to travel there.’

One major change Ameerh talked about when it comes to the spending of the super-rich is not what they spend their money on, but where.

According to the CEO, Paris and Geneva are among the top destinations for Vimana’s customers, who mainly come from Asia, the Middle East and the US.

This makes the city different from another popular shopping destination: London.

In 2021, then Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak scrapped duty-free shopping options for overseas visitors, meaning many of these high-street shoppers decided to make their luxury purchases elsewhere.

The Office of Budget Responsibility estimated that the decision would cost the Treasury £2 billion.

However, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, the cost of losing high-spending consumers was £11 billion a year.

According to Ameerh, it was “very easy to travel to another destination where you get the tax back” and he knew the move would likely have implications for where wealthy individuals would shop.

Members of the private jetterati who come to London to shop are often tempted by chic department stores such as Harrods (pictured)

There is a solution for the super-rich, however, and it is one that Ameerh offers to his clients who are members of the private jettarati.

When you use a Freight Forwarding License to transport your customers’ purchases, you as the buyer pay VAT on the goods when you purchase them. However, when the goods are transported to a destination outside the European Economic Area, the tax is reimbursed by a company called SkyBlue Exports. The company receives a percentage of the VAT as compensation.

Vimana partners with a number of luxury brands and offers luxury goods that are mainly purchased by the very wealthy.

Companies the private aviation broker works with include luxury jewelers Ferrara Diamonds and Catherine Best, as well as high-end department store Harrods and UK-based Asprey London, which sells luxury versions of items such as jewelry, home textiles and handbags.

Customers can have their purchases shipped directly and claim back the VAT. However, if they take advantage of the freight forwarding permit option, they don’t have to wait for their new treats to be delivered, but can take them with them straight away.

Forwarding purchases via freight may seem like a cumbersome way to save 20 percent, but the sky-high amounts of money people spend on services like Ameerh’s make the service financially worthwhile for them.

According to Ameerh, he has a client who gets a monthly budget of $2,000,000 from her husband to buy clothes.

When describing the type of clients who use private flights to fly to shopping destinations, one flight broker revealed that one client has a monthly budget of $2 million for clothing (stock image)

He explained that 20 percent of that amount equates to $400,000. If a wealthy shopper chooses to shop in Paris instead of London, he saves hundreds of thousands of dollars without using this service. That’s an amount most people don’t earn in a year.

In addition to the tax implications of shopping, Ameerh also discussed some of the types of purchases these ultra-wealthy individuals make.

In addition to designer clothing, watches are also popular. He described the watches his clients buy as ranging from “a quarter to tens of millions of dollars.”

Besides accessories, he said people also charter private jets to shop for household items such as home theater systems, sound equipment and furniture.

Expensive wine was also on the list. The CEO mentioned the name Pétrus, a prestige brand that normally costs between €2,000 and €6,000 per bottle.

Speaking about her services, SkyBlue CEO Ben Amri told the Times that the company’s service is “most beneficial for customers living outside the EEA” because it saves time sending goods to those areas.

Among the purchases made by some of these ultra-wealthy shoppers are expensive wines such as Pétrus, a prestige brand that typically costs between €2,000 and €6,000 a bottle.

He added: ‘The SBE service has been set up to give customers a choice of how they export the goods they buy in the UK. Our service allows the customer to retain possession and control of their goods, whilst still benefiting from the refund of VAT paid.’

In addition to clothing brands, jewelers, wine shops and other retailers feeling the slump in foreign luxury purchases, service providers such as hotels, restaurants, theaters and museums are also reportedly dealing with a decline in visitors.

Luxury brands complaining about the loss of revenue due to the abolition of duty-free shopping for international visitors include footwear giant Christian Louboutin and fashion house Burberry.

Meanwhile, acclaimed theatre producer Sonia Friedman, known for The Book of Mormon and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, has also criticised the abolition of the tax-free scheme. She uses theatre terms and calls the scheme ‘a flop’.

Ameeth has promised to fly his super-rich clients to any shopping destination they want, but he too is saddened by the end of the scheme. He wants the private jets to spend their millions in London, which he describes as “the best city in the world.”