The airplane that will be used by Senator J.D. Vance, the pick to be former President Donald J. Trump’s running mate in the 2024 presidential election, is a 2002 vintage Boeing 737-800. Vance is the junior senator from Ohio. And in a twist, the operator of his airplane has ties to Ross Perot, the maverick third-party candidate who, in the 1992 presidential election, gained nearly 20% of the popular vote.
According to FlightAware, the aircraft, registration N917XA, is owned by Eastern 737 Asset Holdings, LLC. Flightradar lists it as operated by Eastern Air Express.
In January, Eastern Air Holdings, Inc. announced it had acquired Hillwood Airways and its fleet of passenger and cargo Boeing 737s. According to its website, Eastern had been operating widebody Boeing 767s and 777s. A month later, it said it would move its headquarters to Kansas City.
At the time, the company said, “While Eastern Airlines is a certified 121 airline authorized to offer scheduled service – domestic and international, the company is focused on business-to-business charter operations, with a particular focus on U.S. government work, notably repositioning of troops for the Department of Defense domestically and internationally as a member of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet (CRAF), as well as other government agencies.”
It also noted, “At any given time, Eastern has 10-to-15 aircraft parked at its hangar facilities at (Kansas City International Airport) and is actively working to expand its fleet, with aspirations to grow its footprint over time in Kansas City.”
The aircraft in question was first identified by celebrity private jet tracker Jack Sweeney. He matched publicity shots of the aircraft to a hangar at Kansas City International Airport.
While some reports have pegged the Vance jet’s value at $100 million, experts say the cost to buy it would be a lot less.
One industry executive familiar with the VIP aircraft segment says the 20-plus-year-old narrowbody aircraft is likely worth between $15 million and $20 million.
“The value is almost entirely in the engines. The airframe has very little value,” he says.
Airfleets.net shows the airplane was delivered to now-defunct Air Berlin in 2002.
It shows at least seven operators, including Orenair, a Russian airline that ceased operations in 2016. Smartwings, an airline based in the Czech Republic, leased the jet from Swift Air on at least three occasions. Its network reaches from the United Kingdom to the United Arab Emirates.
Vance’s airplane had been most recently flying for iAero Airways before it ceased operations earlier this year.
The source says the typical charter rate for the aircraft that could be flying the next vice president is $30,000 per hour. He said there are minimum daily guarantees, generally three to four hours, so you could estimate that the Trump/Vance campaign is paying around $100,000 per day.
Flights are priced with catering, although the customer provides a budget. Other expenses consist of reconfiguring and adhering stickers to the airplane.
The configuration of jets used for these campaigns can vary quite a bit. An all VIP layout would mean 50-to-60 seats in a 2 x 2 configuration. While these seats usually have extra legroom and leg rest, they are closer to the standard domestic first-class seats than the fully flat beds found in international business and first class.
Sometimes, the airplanes are configured with VIP seating in the forward area and standard 3×3 coach seats in the rear. This particular aircraft showed an all-economy configuration with 189 seats as of several years ago.
Typical campaign flights, however, tend to be short hops, so the airplanes are designed to have enough room for staff, security, and sometimes the press. The source said it is not unusual to have maintenance technicians onboard to troubleshoot issues in real-time.
“The schedules are tight. They are subject to change on short notice, and there are lots of behind-the-scenes logistics,” the source says.
Another expense is stickering the aircraft with the candidates’ names and other signage. The source estimates that expense to be about $15,000.
In an interesting twist, Hillwood Airways had been part of the business empire of Ross Perot, Jr. His father, Ross Perot Sr., ran as a third-party candidate in the 1992 presidential election, winning 18.9% of the popular vote but zero electoral votes. Democratic party candidate Bill Clinton bested incumbent George H.W. Bush to win that election.