Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have different plans, however. The powerful duo are proposing to build a $82 million facility for private and corporate jets at Mineta San Jose International Airport.

According to a news release issued by the airport, Signature Flight Support will be awarded a 50-year lease on the airport’s West Side “to develop and operate a 29-acre, $82 million facility, in which they will manage, most notably, the personal aircraft of the principals at Google, among other clients.”

The issue of where to park your planes is certainly an important one. The combined fleet of Page, Brin, and executive chairman Eric Schmidt is estimated at around 8 jets, not including Google’s corporate fleet. The planes are currently housed at Moffett Federal Airfield in Mountain View, which is spitting distance from Google’s headquarters. However, last year Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley made a fuss claiming that this situation wasn’t fair and Google was getting the sweet end of the deal. As Boeings can’t just be locked up on the street or tucked away in a garage, an alternative location was needed.

What’s a billionaire to do?

In this case, the answer is to build your own airport, complete with an executive terminal, hangars, aircraft and car parking, office space, and retail shops. This deal represents a significant boost to the struggling San Jose airport. Mineta recently went through a $1.4 billion renovation and can use the additional revenue. Mayor Chuck Reed is quoted in a Mercury News article as saying he is “excited” because “each of those airplanes is a property tax generator.” Furthermore, the airport will bring in rent and other fees that amount to at least $3 million a year.

A committee comprised of city and airport officials and real estate and airline executives chose Signature Flight Support’s proposal for the project because of the British firm’s financial stability.It cites itself as the world’s largest operator of ‘fixed base’ airports and has private air facilities in 113 locations, including San Francisco, Chicago O’Hare and Boston Logan international airports. Director of aviation Bill Sherry said that the company is committed to ”the private aviation needs of local high-tech companies, most notably the personal aircraft of the principals at Google.”

Google could be the first of many major clients to store their aircraft in San Jose. Executives at international businesses often travel extensively for work and don’t want to drive all the way to San Francisco International Airport, which is about 10 minutes further away from Mountain View than Mineta. Time is money, after all.

Really, it is a win-win situation. Google executives have a safe, friendly, personal place to store their airplanes, without having to interact with regular people or the federal government. For San Jose, the project creates hundreds of new jobs and bolsters its local budget.

Even if building an airport really does work out well for everyone, I am sticking with my initial dreams for my wealthy and powerful future. Unicorn farming.

July 9-10, 2013
San Francisco, CA

Early Bird Tickets on Sale

Add jet-setting executives to the list of things hard-hit Research in Motion can’t get off the ground.

The mobile company, beset by problems, — including a stock that’s dived 95 percent in the past four years — is now looking to sell one of its two corporate jets in a cost-saving plan insiders say could net up to $7 million. The move is part of the Ontario company’s goal to save $1 billion this fiscal year.

The BlackBerry maker will reportedly place its nine-passenger Dassault Aviation SA (DSY) F50EX on the market for $6 million to $7 million, an unnamed sources told Bloomberg News Tuesday. Chief Executive Thorsten Heins is attempting to find $1 billion in savings via “significant efficiences and operating cost reductions.” Already, the Waterloo, Ontario company has slashed 5,000 jobs and several manufacturing plants. News of the aircraft going up for sale comes on the day Heins is to face shareholders at RIM’s annual stockholders meeting.

The F50EX costs around $2.1 million per year to operate, one jet expert told Bloomberg. If the 9-passenger jet is sold, it will still leave RIM with a longer-range aircraft able to seat 14 passengers. The longer-distance aircraft will come in handy, given that RIM executives are being forced to travel as far as Indonesia and South Africa to find customers no longer available closer to home. The company’s 2011 U.S. sales fell 47 percent as Apple and Google’s Android phones grab the bulk of mobile phone marketshare.

Another hiccup came in June, when Heins announced the much-awaited BlackBerry 10 phone would be postponed until early 2013. The new BlackBerry was seen as RIM’s best hope to dig itself out of a sales ditch and regain some consumer interest.

Jet plane photo via Tayhutch/Shutterstock