TSFG sold their Citation XLS aircraft to a buyer out West, according to company officials.

TSFG sells jet

Company says they took a small loss on the multi-million dollar aircraft

by Dick Hughes

Published: August 13, 2009, 10:34 a.m.

The South Financial Group has sold its corporate jet for $6.7 million and is putting executives on commercial flights, teleconferencing, the telephone and the Internet when they need to conduct business between distant points.

Chief Financial Officer James Gordon said the jet, a Cessna Citation XLS, was a luxury that could not be justified at a time when employees are being laid off, taking pay cuts and working harder and shareholders are taking a hit on dividends.

Dan Hubbard, spokesman for the National Business Aviation Association, said the number of corporate jets on the used market hit an historic high as the global recession forced companies to economize.

He said a sharp drop in using company planes for business travel always accompanies economic downturns with sharp drops in manufacturing, sales and flight hours and sharp increases in the number of planes on the used market.

It’s understandable, Hubbard said, that with the global recession being the worst since the Great Depression that the number of corporate jets being unloaded hit a record.

Hubbard said, however, the rate of increase of used jets on the market leveled off in recent weeks, a tentative sign that globally the worst may be over.

South Financial’s eight-passenger Citation, which was purchased new three or four years ago, was sold to an unnamed company “out West.” South Financial put it on the market several months ago.

“We had to take a little loss on it, but not much, and at the end of the day it couldn’t be justified,” Gordon said. “Basically, we’ve got everybody flying commercial.” 

He said on those rare occasions when it makes sense to use private instead of commercial aviation, the company will charter a flight.   But, he said, South Financial has not contracted for leasing.

Corporate jets became a symbol of corporate excess and arrogance last year when the top executives of General Motors and Chrysler flew in separate corporate jets from Detroit to Washington to plead for a government bailout.

The Greenville-based company, South Carolina’s largest bank, has lost money in six consecutive quarters and expects to remain unprofitable through the rest of the year barring a strong national recovery from the recession.

It has been aggressively cutting costs, including unloading such luxuries as the corporate jet and putting its newly built $90-million campus off I 85 on the market.

Corporate jets became a symbol of corporate excess and arrogance last year when the top executives of General Motors and Chrysler flew in separate corporate jets from Detroit to Washington to plead for a government bailout.

South Financial is the holding company for Carolina First in South and North Carolina and Mercantile Bank in Florida.

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