July 20, 2026 — 4:03pmJeff Bezos’ recent 43-hour visit to Sydney would have likely taken him – and his wife, Lauren Sanchez Bezos – through the rarefied confines of the airport’s executive terminal.Bezos’ $114 million Gulfstream G700 jet appears to have departed Sydney on Sunday at 8.10am, heading back across the Pacific. It had landed on Friday at 1pm, before a flurry of dinner meetings and unofficial appearances.Patrons at Mimi’s in Coogee were surprised to see Jeff Bezos and his wife, Lauren Sáchez Bezos, on Friday.How did Bezos land and appear at a restaurant near Coogee beach a mere hour later? He was likely helped by an expedited process for his arrival, a process reserved for truly global VIPs.The uber-wealthy often use a fixed-base operator – a private luxury terminal – to enter and leave a country which is separate from a city’s main airport terminal, commonly used by the masses of flying travellers. Sydney Airport’s fixed-base operator, ExecuJet, would not confirm if Bezos had used its facility.Typically, an Australian Border Force officer will walk onto the parked private jet after it has landed to inspect passports, verify identities, and process declarations, speeding up entry.Nearby, a motorcade will idle on the tarmac, waiting to transport the VIPs and avoiding the need to enter the public terminal. Ground crew have direct access to the plane to unload luggage to their vehicle.Jeff Bezos and wife Lauren Sanchez Bezos strolling around Darling Harbour surrounded by bodyguards.Bezos is likely to have used a similar service to swiftly get to a local restaurant in beachside Coogee.Melbourne-based Events Travel general manager George Hedley said a high level of wealth shaped the sort of travel undertaken by billionaires.The most wealthy can afford to travel great distances in a short amount of time. They typically take trips for business reasons and work on their trips, while mixing in small amounts of leisure.“They have the budget, and they can afford to travel for very short trips,” Hedley said. “The super-wealthy can do something randomly for two to three nights” – such as fly across the Pacific for a short Sydney visit.A Friday to Sunday trip to Australia from the United States wasn’t uncommon for the super rich whereas lower-status billionaires, or simply wealthy people, would book a full week’s vacation or more, Hedley said.ExecuJet is separate from the VIP rooms in Sydney’s T1 international terminal which are used by a few select passengers on commercial flights subject to security and government requirements, Sydney Airport says.Among other things Bezos did on his short visit, he spent Friday evening at the Park Hyatt bar, had dinner on Saturday at the Icebergs restaurant, and did a climb of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.Bezos is the owner of The Washington Post. He has an estimated net worth of about $US260 billion ($372 billion). The billionaire’s executive Gulfstream jet arrived from Vanuatu.The Gulfstream G700 has one of the longest cabins of an executive jet, measuring more than 17 metres.Depending on its configuration, it can carry up to 19 passengers, sleeping up to 13, according to the Gulfstream website. It has four living areas.The interior of the Sydney’s ExecuJet lounge at Sydney Airport.InstagramAs Forbes recently noted: “One might occasionally spot a billionaire in commercial first class, but private travel has largely become the standard for this demographic.”Bezos’ outbound destination after leaving Sydney was not immediately clear. His plane has a maximum range of 14,353 kilometres, putting the west coast of the US and much of Asia within striking distance.The billionaire founder of Amazon and would-be SpaceX rival Blue Origin has emerged as one of the faces of the globe-trotting ultra-wealthy class in a time of widening inequality.The Market Recap newsletter is a wrap of the day’s trading. Get it each weekday afternoon.From our partners