If you landed on a flight from Europe to New York recently, you might have been an unwitting participant in a high-stakes, high-altitude gold trade. WSJ’s Joe Wallace explains what's going on with the gold market, and why gold bars have been flying commercial. Further Reading: -Why Dealers Are Flying Gold Bars by Plane From London to New York Further Listening: -Trump's Tariff Whiplash -The Underground Battle for Colombia's Richest Gold Mine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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Recently, planes have been crossing the Atlantic Ocean with some pretty surprising cargo. The flights take off from Europe, bound for New York. They carry the usual passengers, vacationers, business people, and the usual luggage. But along with all those identical black roller bags, they're carrying something else.
Many, many tons of gold are flying over the Atlantic in the cargo hold of passenger planes.
Gold bars?
Bars, yeah, bars. Bars of gold.
That's my colleague Joe Wallace. Would I ever know if gold was on my flight?
No, no, no. They would never tell you. Then you'd be a target, right, for some armed robbery and...
That's true. Are there load balancing issues involved?
Excellent question. The limitation, I think, is financial. You can generally take up to five tons of gold, which is about half a billion dollars of gold on a flight. And that's because the insurers won't insure anything above that.
Well, that's a lot.
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