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LVMH’s Bernard Arnault on board the group’s private jet. He recently revealed it had sold the plane to stop Twitter accounts from posting about his travels. Photo: Getty Images
LifestyleFashion & Beauty

World’s second richest man, Bernard Arnault, sells private jet so Twitter can’t track him – and says now, ‘no one can see where I go’

  • Bernard Arnault, the head of luxury empire LVMH, recently revealed the group had sold its private jet over the summer to stop Twitter accounts tracking his travels
  • Accounts sprang up to track the planes of French billionaires and to point out the pollution they cause. Arnault says now he rents private planes instead
Millionaires and billionaires
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The world’s second-richest man has had enough of the Twitterverse tracking his every move in his private plane.

Bernard Arnault’s luxury-goods company LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton sold its private jet, he said on October 17 on French radio station Radio Classique. Accounts such as I Fly Bernard and Bernard’s Airplane sprang up on Twitter to track the planes of French billionaires and to point out the pollution they cause.

The subject became a hot topic in France over the summer, with some politicians proposing to ban or tax private jets. One of the Twitter accounts bemoaned the fact that the LVMH jet had ceased to be registered in France.

“Still no word from either Bernard Arnault or LVMH on the subject of private jets,” Bernard’s Airplane wrote on September 10. “So Bernard, are you hiding?”
Arnault at the inauguration of the Atelier Louis Vuitton Vendome in Vendome, France, on February 22, 2022. Photo: Bloomberg

“Indeed, with all these stories, the group had a plane and we sold it,” Arnault said on the LVMH-owned radio station. “The result now is that no one can see where I go because I rent planes when I use private planes.”

Arnault has a net worth of almost US$133 billion, surpassing Amazon’s Jeff Bezos as the world’s second-richest man, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Antoine Arnault and Russian model Natalia Vodianova at Paris Fashion Week in 2019 in Paris, France. Photo: Getty Images
His son, Antoine Arnault, defended the use of private jets on a television show last week. “This plane is a work tool,” he said on France 5’s C à Vous.

“Our industry is hyper-competitive,” he said, and a private plane gives executives an edge in the race to be first to a new product or deal. LVMH sold its plane over the summer, he said.

In the recent radio interview alongside his father, the younger Arnault said there is another business reason for keeping the company’s travels secret.

“It’s not very good that our competitors can know where we are at any moment,” he said. “That can give ideas, it can also give leads, clues.”

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