Jesse Duplantis’s Private Jet: He Asked for a $54 Million Falcon 7X and Bought One for $21 Million

The Jesse Duplantis private jet story starts with a video. In May 2018, the Louisiana televangelist told his followers God had said to him, “I want you to believe in me for a Falcon 7X,” and the jet he described was brand new, with a price of $54 million.

Five years later he got his Dassault Falcon 7X. It was a 2008 airframe on its third registration, and the price he announced during a Kenneth Copeland Ministries telethon was $21 million. Today it flies as N7JD, registered to his church in Destrehan, Louisiana.

What follows is the full record, checked against the FAA register wherever it reaches: every jet the ministry has flown, where each one went, the 2015 “demons” broadcast, and the Inside Edition confrontation over a one-hour flight home.

Jesse Duplantis’s Private Jet Fleet

Jesse Duplantis Ministries has flown five jets over the years. The three Dassault Falcons can be traced through public registration records, and the cards run from the current jet back to the Falcon 50.

The first two jets came before most online records. His first was a Cessna Citation 500 and his second an IAI Westwind, and all three jets before the 7X were bought with cash, according to the St. Charles Herald-Guide.

Trinity Foundation, a watchdog that tracks ministry aircraft, reports that the Citation went to Keith Moore’s Faith Life Church in 2004 and has since been retired. The Westwind went to White Dove Fellowship in 2006 and was resold in 2022.

All three Falcons carried N-numbers ending in JD, his initials. The last two go a step further: N970JD sat on a Falcon 900, and N7JD is on the Falcon 7X. Our guide to airplane tail numbers explains how custom marks like these are chosen.

The Origin Story: From a Citation 500 to a Falcon 7X

Duplantis was born in Destrehan in 1949 and has run his ministry since 1976. His aircraft history runs through the whole second half of that career.

Read in order, the record shows a steady climb: a Citation, a Westwind, then three Dassault trijets, each with more range than the last. The 7X is the longest-legged of them by a wide margin.

Inside N7JD: The Falcon 7X He Believed For

The Falcon 7X was the first fully fly-by-wire business jet, and it entered service in June 2007. It seats 12 to 16 passengers, cruises at Mach 0.80, and flies 5,950 nautical miles on three Pratt & Whitney Canada PW307A engines.

That range was the whole of the ministry’s case for it. “We’re believing God for a brand new Falcon 7X, so we can go anywhere in the world in one stop,” Duplantis said in 2018.

N7JD is not new. Serial 052 was built in 2008 and spent almost four years on the UK register as G-CNUK, from September 2009 to July 2013, then about a decade in the United States as N740AC.

That is how $54 million became $21 million. The 2018 appeal was for a brand-new aircraft, and Wikipedia gives the price of a new, equipped Falcon 7X as $54 million at 2022 prices. The one the ministry bought was 15 years old.

The $21 million figure comes from Duplantis himself, announced on air during a telethon.

The Falcon 50: Twelve Years on the Ministry’s Books

Before the Falcon 900 and the 7X, there was N770JD, a Dassault Falcon 50, serial 148. It was registered to Jesse Duplantis Ministries in March 2006, and by 2018 the ministry had flown it for 12 years.

The Falcon 50 first flew in November 1976, and Dassault built 252 of the original version before the upgraded 50EX took over. The Jet Finder lists its range at 3,230 nautical miles under NBAA IFR rules, with a 470 knot cruise and seats for 8 to 10.

That range was Duplantis’s complaint about it. The jet had to stop for fuel on long trips, and as the St. Charles Herald-Guide quoted him in 2018, “I have to stop and pay those exorbitant prices for jet fuel all over the world.”

At home, he said, the ministry has its own fuel farm. His argument was that a jet able to reach anywhere in one stop could fill up there and avoid most of those bills.

In March 2020, the Falcon 50 was re-registered as N7LW to Mac Hammond’s Living Word Christian Center in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. In 2018 Duplantis had promised the old jet would go to a needy organization, and the FAA record does not say whether this was a gift or a sale.

The Falcon 900: The Jet In Between

Most coverage skips this jet. The Falcon 50 left in March 2020, more than three years before the 7X arrived, and by July 2021 the ministry was flying a Dassault Falcon 900, N970JD, serial 119.

The FAA lists it as a 1992 Mystère Falcon 900. The type is Dassault’s large-cabin trijet, first flown in September 1984, with room for up to 19 passengers.

The ministry still had it when the 7X was announced in September 2023. By the FAA’s September 2026 data, N970JD was registered to Falcon Fawzi II LLC of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, under a certificate dated April 1, 2026.

Two companies with the Falcon Fawzi name at the same address hold a 1993 Falcon 50 and a 1995 Falcon 900. Nothing public says what the ministry received for N970JD, or whether it passed through other owners on the way.

The $54 Million Appeal

The video appeared in May 2018. In it, Duplantis said God had told him, “Jesse, I didn’t ask you to pay for it, I asked you to believe for it,” and he asked viewers to “pray about becoming a partner” in the jet.

Then came the line that made national news.

I really believe that if Jesus was physically on the Earth today, he wouldn’t be riding a donkey. He’d be in an airplane preaching the gospel flying all over the world.

The backlash was immediate. Within days he told ABC News, “I haven’t raised any money for that plane,” and later put it this way: “I’m not asking you to pay for my plane, I’m asking you to pray for my plane.”

He also pushed back on the idea that he flew a fleet. “I said I’ve had three jets, I don’t have three jets,” he told ABC. “Two of them now are in other ministries.”

His defense of the jet itself was practical. “I think of an airplane as work,” he said, and he promised the old jet would go to a needy organization once the new one arrived.

Jesse Duplantis’s Most Famous Private Jet Moments

The 2018 video is the best known, but it was neither the first nor the last time his jets made headlines.

December 2015: “A long tube with a bunch of demons”

The first viral moment came from a segment on Kenneth Copeland’s Believer’s Voice of Victory program, which aired on December 30, 2015. Copeland said flying commercial meant you “get in a long tube with a bunch of demons.”

Duplantis told a story about his own plane. He said God had asked him, “Jesse, do you like your plane?”

When he said yes, he recalled, the reply was “So that’s it?” and then “You gonna let your faith stagnate?”

He also said a Delta pilot had told him his schedule could not be flown on commercial airlines.

May 2019: Inside Edition and the one-hour flight home

A year after the appeal, Inside Edition filmed Duplantis boarding the ministry’s Falcon 50 for a one-hour flight from Fort Worth, Texas, to his home outside New Orleans. The program put the round trip at about $14,000, against about $180 on an airline.

It also reported that the jet had taken him to Hawaii 16 times since 2006.

When correspondent Lisa Guerrero asked him at a book signing why he needed a $54 million jet, he said, “We’re not doing any kind of interviews now, I’m in a book signing,” and security removed her. The next day, from the pulpit, he said he had made her “Outside Edition.”

June 2019: A Falcon 50 in Perth

Two months after that report, the same jet turned up on the other side of the world. On June 29, 2019, N770JD made its first visit to Perth, Australia, landing on runway 03 at 12:31 pm, according to the spotters at Aviation WA.

A jet with a 3,230 nautical mile range crosses long stretches of ocean in stages, buying fuel at each stop. That is exactly what the 2018 appeal set out to avoid.

July 2021: Bakersfield, Las Vegas, New Orleans

In 2021, Trinity Foundation’s Pastor Planes project was following 52 ministry-owned jets and turboprops through the ADS-B Exchange flight-tracking network. In the week of July 5, it logged the ministry’s Falcon 900 flying from Bakersfield, California, to Las Vegas, and on to New Orleans the next morning.

September 2023: The 7X announced on a telethon

The 7X finally arrived by way of a fundraiser. On September 20, 2023, during Kenneth Copeland Ministries’ VictoryThon, Duplantis told viewers the ministry had bought a $21 million Falcon 7X.

Two months later, on November 27, the FAA issued N7JD’s registration to the church. The ministry has not said how the purchase was funded.

How Duplantis’s Jet Compares to Other Pastors’

Duplantis is in familiar company. Our roundup of pastors with private jets runs from an old Cessna 500 to a Gulfstream G650, and the Falcon 7X appears more than once.

Owner	Aircraft	Note
Jesse Duplantis	Dassault Falcon 7X (N7JD)	2008 airframe, $21M announced in 2023
Kenneth Copeland	Gulfstream V	His ministry’s flagship jet
Keith Moore	Dassault Falcon 7X	His church received Duplantis’s first jet in 2004
Creflo Dollar	Gulfstream G650	Subject of his own 2015 jet appeal
Joyce Meyer	Gulfstream IV	Large-cabin Gulfstream
Taylor Swift	Dassault Falcon 7X	Same type as N7JD

The closest match is Keith Moore, whose Faith Life Church took over Duplantis’s first jet in 2004. Moore flies a Falcon 7X too. Outside the pulpit, Taylor Swift flies the same type.

What sets Duplantis apart is the gap between the ask and the aircraft. In 2018 he asked followers to believe for a new $54 million jet, and the register now shows a 15-year-old one bought for $21 million, with his initials on the tail.

FAQ

Does Jesse Duplantis have a private jet?

Yes. His ministry flies a 2008 Dassault Falcon 7X registered N7JD, serial 052, owned by Voice of the Covenant Church Inc, which does business as Jesse Duplantis Ministries in Destrehan, Louisiana. As of the FAA’s September 2026 data, it is the only aircraft registered under the ministry’s name.

How much did Jesse Duplantis's jet cost?

Duplantis announced a price of $21 million when he revealed the Falcon 7X on September 20, 2023, during Kenneth Copeland Ministries’ VictoryThon. His 2018 appeal had been for a brand-new Falcon 7X at $54 million. The jet the ministry bought was built in 2008, so it was 15 years old at purchase.

How many private jets has Jesse Duplantis owned?

His ministry has flown five: a Cessna Citation 500, an IAI Westwind, a Dassault Falcon 50 (N770JD), a Dassault Falcon 900 (N970JD) and the current Falcon 7X (N7JD). In 2018 he said he had had three jets but owned only one at the time. Today only the Falcon 7X is registered to the ministry.

What is the tail number of Jesse Duplantis's jet?

N7JD. The Falcon 7X was registered under that mark on November 27, 2023. It previously flew as G-CNUK in the UK from 2009 to 2013 and as N740AC in the United States. His earlier Falcons were N770JD and N970JD, and all three marks end in his initials.

What did Jesse Duplantis say about Jesus and a donkey?

In his May 2018 video asking followers to believe for a Falcon 7X, Duplantis said that if Jesus were physically on Earth today, he would not be riding a donkey but would be in an airplane preaching the gospel all over the world. The line made national news and drew criticism from other Christian leaders.

Did Jesse Duplantis's followers pay for his jet?

The ministry has not said how the $21 million Falcon 7X was funded. In 2018 Duplantis asked viewers to pray about becoming a partner in the jet, then told ABC News he had not raised any money for it. He has said the ministry paid cash for its earlier jets.

What happened to Jesse Duplantis's old jets?

Trinity Foundation reports his Citation 500 went to Keith Moore’s Faith Life Church in 2004 and his Westwind to White Dove Fellowship in 2006. The Falcon 50 was re-registered to Living Word Christian Center in Minnesota in March 2020. The Falcon 900 was registered to Falcon Fawzi II LLC of Fort Lauderdale in April 2026.

Why does Jesse Duplantis fly private instead of commercial?

He calls it work. In 2018 he said, ‘I think of an airplane as work,’ and argued a long-range jet would let the ministry reach anywhere in the world in one stop. In a December 2015 broadcast with Kenneth Copeland, he said a Delta pilot had told him his schedule could not be flown commercially.