Having been in the corporate aviation biz in a past life, including housing aircraft for Charter companies, I can tell you, most likely, why Leonel is in that aircraft:
1) All bizjets are not equal. Each has a designed mission. That plane is intercontinental and can fly a bunch of folks thousands of miles. They make up a small % of the bizjet fleet. It was the right tool for the job of flying to Libya.
2) Virtually all bizjets not corporate owned and operated are in a charter fleet and various charter brokers have access to it. For instance, a Charter company in my hanger used Jerry Jones Dallas Cowboy-adorned jet as well as Nigel Mansell's Citation X to charter. Bizjets are waaaaaay expensive to operate without many being subsidized by being put into Charter service.
I know owners of Lear 31's who would charter Challengers because their own Lear wasn't cost-effective for a particular mission.
I put my old '01 Cessna 182S, a "high performance" (FAA type designation for a plane of it's HP/constant-speed prop/cowl flaps configuration) airplane, in a flight school fleet (my flight school until I sold it) to rent it for 20 hrs. a month to subsidize the cost.
I quit flying my 182 to the DR 6-8 times a year because it was not the right aircraft for the mission (single engine flying long stretches overwater out of radar contact with ATC). But the right aircraft-a turbocharged twin-is cost prohibitive for 2 passengers unless oney is meaningless. The cost of fuel and maintenance (easily triple the cost of a single engine) could run the hourly operating costs into the $250 area vs. $100. To put this into perspective, the
hourly cost (no profit or brokers commission, just the base operating cost) of a bizjet is $US850 (small Lear) to $US2500 (GII). An older 727 costs around $4000 per hour to operate. Those figures do not include crew, headhead fees, ramp costs, etc.
I doubt there is any connection between Bono and Leonel. No doubt he felt like a Rock Star renting it...
It looks like Bono lent his plane to Leonel
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