Private jet travel rises to near pre-Covid levels

Private jet  - Extreme Photographer/Getty Images
Private jet - Extreme Photographer/Getty Images
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Coronavirus Article Bar with counter ..

Private jet flights have returned to near pre-pandemic levels as business executives and wealthier travellers charter planes as "safe" alternatives to unreliable commercial airlines.

Official figures show Easter flights globally were double the rate of last April - and only six per cent short of the numbers before the pandemic in 2019. By contrast commercial airlines were down at least 40 per cent on Easter 2019.

The number of UK private jet flights at Easter was four times greater than last year, but they have not seen the same bounce back compared to other European countries like Spain and Italy due to Britain’s third lockdown and its ban on non-essential travel.

The US has seen the biggest rise in private jet travel, with increases of 55 per cent in Florida and 22 per cent in Texas. More travellers are also joining card payment schemes with Sentient Jet, the main provider, up 50 per cent from $300 million to $450 million.

Adam Twidell, chief executive of PrivateFly, a booking platform for private jets, said the pandemic was transforming private aviation from being seen as "a luxury to a utility for the foreseeable future".

"One of the main reasons is the safety and security of people that are travelling in private jets. You know that everybody is safe together," said Mr Twidell.

He added that it means contact with other people is minimised as travellers spend less time waiting in terminals, have fewer contacts with other passengers and can travel effectively as a family or office "bubble".

"It reduces contact ten fold. There are something like 200 touchpoints if you fly by commercial planes but only 20 if you fly by private jet," said Mr Twidell.

The downside is the cost, which runs at more than £53,000 for a private Bombardier Challenger 605 jet from London to New York, that could carry 12 people. This equates to double the price for equivalent business class tickets, but is on a par with the price of first class flights.

Commercial passenger flights have been decimated by the pandemic and are running at a fraction of pre-pandemic levels. Industry experts do not expect a return to 2019 numbers for two or three years.

It comes as the Government prepares to lift the ban on foreign travel and introduce a traffic light system under which quarantine is expected to be removed for a handful of "green list" countries from May 17.