Pfizer's Jet Sale: Downsizing or Upscaling? Wyeth Brings Its Own

(MoneyWatch)  Pfizer may not be getting rid of its private aircraft after all. A column in The Day says that the company is re-evaluating its options in light of the Wyeth merger.

BNET noted on June 2 that Pfizer's two Gulfstreams were being sold in an online ad that featured lots of nice shots of the planes' interiors -- complete with gold-tassled cushions (click image to enlarge). David Collins of The Day, however, wanted to know if Pfizer was getting rid of the planes to economize or because it was trading up. So he contacted Pfizer to ask:

... it took me an entire week to get an answer that was, at best, ambiguous.

It turns out the company "will evaluate our options for replacing these vehicles," a fleet reappraisal that a company spokesperson suggested might follow Pfizer's completion of its acquisition of the drug maker Wyeth.

In other words, they might well be trading up.

As BNET noted when the planes first went on sale, there's a difference between putting them up for sale and actually selling them.

The Day also points out something that BNET readers knew back in March, which is that Wyeth's management brings its own Versailles-style standards when it comes to getting from A to B. Wyeth "requires" CEO Bernard Poussot and former chairman Robert Essner to take private jets and helicopters even for "personal" use, and the company then reimburses the pair if any of that personal travel becomes a tax liability. That's right -- Wyeth pays Poussot and Essner to take its helicopters on vacation.

• Previously:
• A Look Inside Pfizer's Corporate Jets, Now Up for Sale
• Wyeth CEO Got 69% Pay Raise; Was "Required" to Use Helicopter; Plus $24 Million Pfizer Sale Bonus