true true 0 <img src="http://realestate.halogenguides.com/image/show/airbus-a380.jpg" title="A380" alt="A380" class="floatright" width="200"/>Could Prince Alwaleed soon have some company? If reports are to be believed, one Michael Ezra of Uganda is currently in negotiations with Airbus to be the second private individual to purchase his own A380. The A380 is the world&#8217;s largest passenger jet, with room for as many as 853 passengers in commercial configurations. The green aircraft&#8212;without any interior furnishings&#8212;is priced at $260 million dollars. The putative buyer of the plane is an enigmatic figure to say the least. Only 34 years old, [Michael Ezra](http://www.michaelezra.name/) is described as a sports philanthropist on his personal website, which displays numerous photos of the gold-chained, self-styled tycoon at various athletic contests throughout Africa. Our research was unable to uncover the veritable source of his wealth. Some stories seem to indicate that he has made a fortune in real estate, while others hint at less legitimate sources, and still others speculate that he is some sort of government agent. In 2004, Mr. Ezra was unsuccessful in a bid to purchase the English soccer club Leeds United for &#163;90 million. At first we were somewhat skeptical that only the second private A380 in the world was being bought by a man with as dubious bona fides as Mr. Ezra&#8212;after all, with the Daily Monitor of Ethiopia seemingly the only news outlet reporting the story, there wasn't much to support the claim&#8212;but after contacting Airbus ourselves, it seems there may be some truth to the story after all. Responding to our enquiry regarding the sale of an A380 to Mr. Ezra, an Airbus representative confirmed that the consortium is indeed in talks about an A380, and while they went on to say that they &#8220;cannot provide more details about the discussions,&#8221; they did not deny that the talks were with Mr. Ezra. Regardless of the ultimate truth of the story, its hard to take Mr. Ezra&#8217;s title of philanthropist too seriously. With interior decorations likely costing an extra $100 million or so, the total price of Mr. Ezra&#8217;s plane will be more than 310,000 times the GDP per capita of his native Uganda. 2008-05-09T12:56:40Z 2 true 1197 true false 2008-05-09T12:55:00Z true false ugandan-tycoon-to-purchase-world-s-second-private-a380 false 0

Rumor has it that the world's second private A380 will be purchased by Michael Ezra, a Ugandan billionaire with a fortune of unknown origins. Will Price Alwaleed soon have company?

Article 2009-03-22T08:53:44Z 385 15