Is This Business Aviation’s Frustrating New Normal?

Clients are paying $5,000 to $25,000 per hour for private jets, and in return they’re getting delays and downgrades. What gives?

Achief executive recently shared an email about a jet charter his company had arranged for important clients. Scheduled for an on-time departure from Austin, the pilots noticed a blinking light in the cockpit and called in the mechanics. Several hours later, the issue was resolved—but the crew, which by then had exceeded FAA-mandated hours for the day, was grounded. Unable to secure a replacement aircraft, the clients didn’t complete the flight to Phoenix until the following day. The CEO, an experienced private flier, was incensed that such an expensive trip had been delayed because the provider couldn’t find another jet: “One of the most incredible shit shows ever by a charter company,” he wrote.

For an industry that prides itself on clockwork white-glove service, dealing with the massive, Covid-era influx of newcomers from the commercial airlines has been a struggle. “We’re seeing 25 to 40 percent more volume than previous years,” says Michael Silvestro, CEO of Flexjet, a fractional-ownership and jetcard provider. “Our companies are all trying to get supply up to these levels of demand. We’re in the ultimate famine-tofeast moment.”

NetJets, the largest fractional provider, suspended all jet-card sales to ensure it could keep its fractional owners flying on time. “NetJets’ flight demand is currently exceeding all other highs in our 57-year history,” wrote company president

Patrick Gallagher, in July, by way of acknowledging that some owners had

experienced delays. “The vast number of flights,” he continued, “is taxing the airtravel infrastructure in ways we haven’t seen in years.” Jay Mesinger, CEO of Mesinger Jet Sales, says he’s even seeing some companies change the terms of service in mid-contract by lengthening the amount of lead time clients must give them, and echoes Gallagher’s sentiments: “We haven’t come to grips with this yet. I think there will be a lot of disappointment.”

Delays and aircraft downgrades are the two main complaints: A scarcity of preowned aircraft for sale, air-traffic-control delays, higher fleet-utilization rates— which means both more maintenance issues and fewer replacement jets—and parts, fuel and labor shortages are all hitting simultaneously, creating a perfect storm of frustration for the private flier.

“Passengers are also scheduling flights in a much shorter window,” says Anthony Tivnan, president of Magellan Jets, which logged a 240 percent year-over-year increase in jet-card sales from January through August. “Every weekend last summer was comparable to peak periods such as Christmas and July Fourth.”

Tivnan says Magellan is spending “significantly more” on customer outreach in an attempt to educate clients on how to minimize delays: book earlier, avoid flying from Thursday to Sunday and during peak travel periods—in other words, exactly the hoops a coach passenger jumps through to snag a seat on a commercial flight.

And yet despite all the gritted teeth, nobody sees a mass exodus back to commercial. “People are willing to deal with delays to a certain extent and may bounce from company to company,” says Peder von Harten, vice president of sales and marketing for Mississippibased Nicholas Air, who says his company has added four new airplanes and plans to have two more by year’s end. “But they won’t all leave the market.”

Doug Gollan, editor and founder of Private Jet Card Comparisons, puts it more bluntly. Referencing a recent 300-member survey where 100 percent said they would continue to fly privately, he insists that “whatever delays and kinks are out there, these new fliers are not going back to the airlines.”

“We haven’t come to grips with this yet. I think there will be a lot of disappointment.”