Wealthy hop onto private jets to cut virus risk
Growing fear about coronavirus is battering commercial airlines, but private jet operators are seeing a spike in demand as well-heeled travellers look to minimise their public exposure and find alternatives to suspended flights.
“There’s undoubtedly been a rise in demand for short-notice, on-demand charter,” said Adam Twidell, chief executive officer of the jet charter provider PrivateFly. “We’ve had a very significant number of inquiries, for group evacuations, and from corporates and individuals.”
Requests have included a decontamination team looking for transport within Asia and a family travelling to Bali from Hong Kong who wanted to avoid exposure to other people on a commercial flight.
The charter company Victor recently had a film studio ask about flying 50 people to Los Angeles from Tokyo to limit interaction with other travellers.
Such inquiries are becoming more common now that the virus has spread almost everywhere in the world, operators say.
“The number of private jet requests has gone up — especially on long-haul flights,” said Richard Lewis, US president of Insignia Group, which organises travel for wealthy clients. “They’re not willing to share the cabin with other people.”
It’s not cheap, but can be relatively competitive with luxury commercial travel.
The cost of flying round-trip from New York to London on a 12-seat
Gulfstream IV is about US$140,000, although squeezing that many people onboard removes some of the comfort factor. That compares with $10,000 for a first-class ticket flying commercial, complete with a lie-flat bed.
For individuals and companies willing to pay extra, it’s a way to minimise the risk of infection.
JetSet Group, a New York-based charter company that books roughly 150 flights a month, has seen business spike about 25% in the last few weeks. Fear of the virus appears to be driving the demand, said founder and CEO Steve Orfali.
Many of his clients have medium-sized business and have to travel to see factories or stores. Others are considering it for family vacations.
“When they’re going on a personal trip, they don’t want to expose their family, so they’re anteing up and paying for a private jet rather than first-class tickets for everyone and risking it,” he said.
People who don’t normally fly private are also calling. Orfali said he hopes they’ll become regular clients after experiencing the convenience and time savings of such travel.
Most operators realise the extra demand generated from the coronavirus may be temporary, especially if the outbreak continues to pummel stocks.
“Our clients are people who are heavily invested in the markets,” said Richard Zaher, founder and CEO of Paramount Business Jets in Leesburg, Virginia. “When they’re losing millions of dollars, they’re not going to necessarily want to go on vacation to a place where they’re going to spend a lot of money and also possibly expose themselves to people who may carry the virus.”
“This is not good for private aviation,” he added.
PrivateFly’s Twidell shares that concern.
“Any short-term gain is obviously balanced with longer-term concerns and challenges, including the impact on the global economy,” he said. “Even now, while we’re seeing short-term additional demand, other clients are changing or cancelling their travel plans.”
“Our clients are requesting aircraft that haven’t flown to mainland China, and are asking for a crew that has been temperature-checked”
RICHARD ZAHER Paramount Business Jets
Travellers who still need to get around in the face of numerous route cancellations by commercial airlines are seeking out private jet operators to fill the void of suspended flights. Vimana Private Jets, which charters trips for the ultra-wealthy, has helped clients with business meetings in Beijing in recent weeks. The jets typically don’t stay long on the ground in China. Instead they fly to Vietnam while they wait for the return leg to mitigate the risk of infection to crew.
Still, the logistics of flying into highrisk virus areas is becoming increasingly complicated, said Twidell. For one, it’s often hard to find the aircraft or sufficient crew to fill all the requests.
“Operational protocols are changing daily,” he said. “It’s a very fluid situation.”
Paramount Business Jets is getting a lot of requests to fly people out of Asia, Zaher said. It’s not easy. There are difficulties finding available aircraft and complying with new restrictions, such as making sure passengers who have visited China have been out of the country and observed for 14 days without showing symptoms.
“Our clients are requesting aircraft that haven’t flown to mainland China, for example, and are asking for a crew that has been temperature-checked,” said Zaher, whose company arranges about 500 flights a year.
Planes and their passengers still must respect any quarantined areas, and must undergo additional screening procedures for trips to and from risk areas.
Flights coming into the UK from such locations are subject to inspections by authorities, whose powers include “detention of the aircraft, passengers, stores, equipment and cargo” if they constitute a danger to public health, according to the Association of Port Health Authorities’ website.