Louis Vuitton $50K plane bag costs more than a small plane

A luxury handbag is being ridiculed online for its eye-watering price tag – which is more than you could pay for a real plane.

A man’s designer handbag in the elaborate shape of a plane is drawing ridicule online – particularly for its five-figure price tag.

Louis Vuitton debuted the plane-shaped bag by designer Virgil Abloh in its Autumn-Winter 2021 collection this month.

The luxury bag, which features the French fashion house’s iconic brown leather and LV monogram, takes the form of a passenger jet, including wings, engines, tail and cockpit windows.

RELATED: ‘Shocked’: Mystery infection of 52 on flight

This $50,000 Louis Vuitton handbag is raising eyebrows.

RELATED: Wild airport brawl over seats on plane

It has a price tag of $US39,000 – more than $A50,000. Which, in some cases, is more than you’d pay for a real plane, critics on Twitter pointed out.

You can buy an actual plane for less. pic.twitter.com/Egwh3A7tcp

— 🦜 Valeska 🦈 Vaccinated 💉 (@vah0603) April 3, 2021

For $39K I better be able to fly that bag.

— The Wolf Of Sesame Street (@Chinloyal) April 2, 2021

Where's my chapstick?
Have you checked the cockpit?

— Erick (@erickplaystatio) April 2, 2021

This design is just plane wrong

— bengis (Connor] (@Bengis77) April 3, 2021

It's a bit too plane for my tastes.

— Chris Flinders (@Chris8692) April 5, 2021

Looks like price of handbags really “took off” this year.. https://t.co/mqGbsZbZyZ

— Graham Stephan (@GrahamStephan) April 8, 2021

Even US carrier Southwest Airlines couldn’t help but make a dig, cheekily tweeting a picture of its plush plane-shaped toy and saying: “Ours is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper, and makes a takeoff noise when squeezed. Just saying.”

Ours is SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper, and makes a takeoff noise when squeezed. Just saying. https://t.co/V1QGNFu4eCpic.twitter.com/gBVrLVObXP

— Southwest Airlines (@SouthwestAir) April 14, 2021

The bag’s American designer Virgil Abloh, who has spent the last three years as artistic director for Louis Vuitton’s menswear collection, said it was inspired by “tourist vs purist” archetypes.

“It’s my organising principle for my point of view when I make things,” Abloh told Vogue in January.

“A tourist is someone who’s eager to learn, who wants to see the Eiffel Tower when they come to Paris. The purist is the person who knows everything about everything.”