Family business: Father and son take two Gulfstream G650 private jets in three days

The Sawaris family in Egypt accepts delivery of two Gulfstream G650 private jets with a combined value of $118 million.

Some families have two cars, some affluent families even have two homes, but a family of Egyptian billionaires has taken this one stage further, by taking delivery of two Gulfstream G650 private jets in the same week.

While both aircraft remain registered under different company names, they remain inextricably linked through the Sawiris family name and the fact that they are both based – and registered – in the same country.

Both G650 aircraft, initially priced at $59 million but now at $64.5 million, were delivered within three days of each other and have both been placed on the Isle of Man aircraft registry under holding company names that include the initials of the family member who owns the aircraft.

The most recent G650 to be delivered (msn 6047 / M-KSSN), left the Gulfstream factory in Savannah, Georgia on 21 November, with the Isle of Man register showing that it is registered to NS Aviation Limited in Bermuda. NS Aviation has operated private jets before, including a Falcon 900DX and Challenger 604, both of which were registered as VP-BNS.

Three days prior to this saw the delivery of the first of the two G650s. The aircraft (msn 6037 / M-USIK) left Savannah on 18 November, with the recent Isle of Man register update showing that this is registered to OS Aviation Limited in Bermuda. The aircraft is operated by YYA Management who is known to have previously operated aircraft on behalf of the Orascom Group of companies.

The Orascom Group is mostly involved in construction and telecommunications technology, but is perhaps best known globally for installing and running the 3G phone network in North Korea. The family, based in Cairo, is headed by Onsi Sawiris who Forbes estimated to be worth $2.9 billion in 2011. Although Osni has now effectively retired from the company, he is still involved with the larger group decisions. His initials form the OS in OS Aviation, who own G650 M-USIK.

Onsi has three sons that all run a specialist part of the company’s activities. The largest of these, the construction arm, is run by the youngest son Nassef Sawiris, who Forbes estimate to be worth $5.5 billion. Nassef, who also sits on the board of companies in Luxembourg and Belgium, lends his initials to the NS in NS Aviation.

Both of the aircraft received by the Sawiris family were part of a series of seven G650 deliveries made by Gulfstream in a week-long period in November.

With the revelation that these two aircraft are owned in Egypt, North Africa and the Middle East have jumped over Europe to become the second largest area for G650 operations, accounting for 16 per cent of deliveries. Europe has now fallen back to third place with 13 per cent of deliveries, while the US retains the top position with 60 per cent.