Aman Launches Its 2028 Private Jet Expeditions

Somewhere over the foothills of the Himalayas, between a gorge in Yunnan and a valley in Bhutan, a journey quietly changes key. Behind lies the river roar of the Tiger Leaping Gorge; ahead, the prayer flags of Paro and a monastery that clings to the cliff as if the mountain itself had decided to keep it. In between there is the low hum of the engines, a cup of something warm and a rare sensation – moving across a continent at the speed of a thought, and arriving each time to the same deep quiet.

This is the idea behind Aman’s Private Jet Expeditions, created with the New York-based travel specialist Remote Lands. For 2028 the long-standing partners have announced five departures across Asia, Europe and the Middle East, each limited to 16–18 guests. The formula is simple and deceptively bold: stays at Aman sanctuaries, private aviation between them and a sequence of carefully curated experiences at places of cultural, spiritual and natural significance. Two itineraries are new this year – Cultural Treasures of Asia and From Islands to Ancient Worlds – and two return by demand.

It feels fitting that Remote Lands celebrates its 20th anniversary in 2026, as the company built its name on journeys that require privileged access to people, places and moments. And there is a pleasing symmetry on Aman’s side, too. The brand began in 1988 with Amanpuri in Phuket, whose name translates as “place of peace”. Nearly four decades and 36 hotels, resorts and residences later, that original promise still sets the rhythm of every itinerary.

Cultural Treasures of Asia

4–19 March 2028, 15 nights

The first of the new journeys reads like a pilgrimage through the spiritual geography of Asia. It opens at Aman Tokyo, where Japanese tradition is approached through the hands: a tea ceremony, sushi-making with a master chef, a lesson with the samurai sword. Each gesture is precise, almost meditative, and sets the tone for what follows.

From Tokyo the jet heads south to Amansara in Siem Reap, where Angkor Wat reveals itself from above by helicopter – the temple complex spread across the jungle like an ancient map of the cosmos, which, in a sense, it is. Then comes Amandayan in Lijiang, gateway to the Tiger Leaping Gorge, where, as the legend goes, a tiger once escaped hunters by leaping across the river at its narrowest point.

At Amankora’s Paro Lodge, guests hike to the Tiger’s Nest Monastery, perched some 900 metres above the valley floor, and take part in a traditional long-life blessing ceremony. In a kingdom that famously measures Gross National Happiness, longevity has long been understood as something spiritual as much as biological – a balance of mind, community and landscape. The modern longevity clinic, with its biomarkers and blood panels, arrives at a similar conclusion by a very different road.

The final stage leads to Amanbagh in Alwar, Rajasthan, and culminates with a private jet touchdown in Agra and a visit to the Taj Mahal – a monument to love built in white marble, glowing pink at dawn and gold at dusk.

From Islands to Ancient Worlds

4–21 October 2028, 17 nights

The most ambitious itinerary of the collection crosses eight destinations in 17 nights, threading Japan, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Maldives, the UAE, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey into a single line across the globe.

It begins with a private geisha evening at Aman Kyoto, where the garden is set within a hidden forest and moss grows over stones as old as the city’s memory. The mood then shifts to pure island stillness at Amanpulo, a secluded island in the Philippines, before Amanjiwo in Central Java opens the way to Borobudur and Prambanan. These UNESCO-listed temples – one Buddhist, one Hindu, both more than a thousand years old – stand barely an hour apart, as if two great philosophies had agreed to share the same volcanic horizon.

For travellers from the Gulf, the route holds a familiar note: the journey passes through the Maldives and the UAE on its way west, a reminder of how naturally this region sits at the crossroads between Asia and Europe. The final chapter unfolds on Montenegro’s Adriatic coast at Aman Sveti Stefan, the 15th-century fishing village turned island sanctuary. From here, a helicopter excursion leads to Mostar in Bosnia and Herzegovina, with its Stari Most bridge and Ottoman Old Town. The last flight lands in Istanbul – a city that has been a meeting point of East and West for over 1,500 years, and the natural place for such a journey to come to rest.

Discover Southeast Asia

6–19 February 2028 and 29 October–11 November 2028, 13 nights

Following strong demand, this itinerary returns twice in 2028. It traces a tropical arc through Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand, beginning at Amanoi on Vinh Hy Bay and continuing to Amantaka in Luang Prabang, where saffron-robed monks walk the streets at dawn and the Mekong moves slowly enough to slow you down with it.

In Laos, guests are welcomed with an intimate Baci ceremony, a ritual in which white cotton threads are tied around the wrists to call the wandering spirits back to the body – an ancient form of wellbeing, as tender as it is symbolic. Angkor appears again, this time from a helicopter above Amansara, before the journey reaches the sea at Amanpuri – the place where Aman began – with yacht cruises among the limestone towers of UNESCO-listed Phang Nga Bay. The final two nights belong to Aman Nai Lert Bangkok, a calm green sanctuary in the heart of the Thai capital.

China’s UNESCO Treasures

14–26 May 2028, 12 nights

The returning China itinerary is a 12-night study of the country’s cultural and natural heritage, from imperial landmarks to ancient settlements and mountain vistas. Amanfayun in Hangzhou, set within a centuries-old village among tea plantations and Buddhist temples, offers a private cruise on West Lake. Amandayan reveals the UNESCO-listed Old Town of Lijiang, and Amanyangyun near Shanghai – a forest of ancient camphor trees and relocated Ming and Qing dynasty houses – completes the trio.

Between them, private touchdowns in Xi’an and Zhangjiajie bring guests to the Terracotta Warriors, the silent clay army that has guarded the first emperor of China for more than 2,000 years, and to the sandstone pillars of Wulingyuan, rising from the mist like the floating mountains of a dream. And somewhere along the way there is a champagne lunch atop the Great Wall – perhaps the most theatrical table setting on the planet.

The art of arriving

What unites these journeys is a particular relationship with time. Private aviation compresses the distances; Aman stretches the moments in between. In an age that measures longevity in years added to life, these expeditions offer something closely related – life added to years, through wonder, silence and the company of places that have outlived empires.

Perhaps that is the real destination: a state of mind somewhere between the temple and the sky, where the next flight can wait.