THERE was a time when a gift token for Christmas meant $5 to spend on a record. Not so on Wall Street this year, where traders were exchanging gift cards worth thousands of dollars to be spent on hiring private jets by the hour.

Blue Star Jets, a New York private jet broker, is offering the mile-high gift cards starting from $2,000 (£1,150) an hour.

The gift card, like the company, is the brainchild of Todd Rome, a former Wall Street trader who founded Blue Star five years ago. “I know from experience that traders and bankers try to outdo each other every year with ludicrous and expensive gifts,” said Mr Rome. “They have their bonuses and they like to show off.”

This year Wall Street traders have much bigger bonuses than ever before, as investment banks turned in record profits. One hour aboard a light jet — which takes seven people — will set you back $2,000. An eight-seater jet costs $3,000, while a large 10-15 seater aircraft costs $4,200 an hour. “We also offer special services such as masseuses, chefs or spa treatments. Whatever you need we can get it,” he added.

Blue Star also offers a “debit card” style payment card which can hold up to $1 million credit to be spent on private jets.

Mr Rome was something of a pioneer in the private jet market when he founded Blue Star in 2000 with $30 million.

“I got into this business because I was a customer and the services on offer were inadequate. Before Blue Star there were three ways to use a private jet; you could charter a plane when you needed one, there was fractional ownership or outright ownership.”

Those methods were too costly, he said. “We act as private jet brokers. We know where almost all the private jets in the world are, we know which ones are returning empty or are not being used — so we can match up a customer with a jet.”

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, private jet usage has soared. “If you have a group of executives and they all need to get from New York to Boston for a one-hour meeting they could spend all day using commercial airlines or a couple of hours using us.”

America’s National Business Travel Association confirms that private jet usage is soaring, while Honeywell and Rolls-Royce both predict that sales of private jets will continue to grow.

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