[Las Vegas, 11th Reuters]-Private jets for business were once a refuge for those with the right financial resources to escape the waiting list at the airport. But now that the pandemic is waning, the surge in demand is also facing the wealthy with flight cancellations and delays.
While it’s a headache for the “jets” who fly around the world, this tight supply-demand situation is a gospel for manufacturers of luxury corporate jets with a capacity of 19 or less. At the world’s largest business jet trade fair held on the 12th to 14th, each company seems to have received many new orders.
Some businesses that sell fractional ownership and operate charter aircraft have declined applications, and faced further tight supply and demand ahead of the holiday season, the aircraft I’m running for additional purchases.
In the United States, private jet traffic is above 2019 levels. Due to the shortage of personnel, the burden of operations in the private jet industry, from refueling to catering services, is increasing. Moreover, according to industry executives, the number of alternative machines to replace defective machines is decreasing.
To maintain quality of service, NetJets recently stopped selling “jet cards,” which allow customers to purchase flights on a prepaid time basis.
The company, which is the world’s largest private jet business, will invest about $ 2.5 billion to purchase 100 new aircraft, but the delivery will be between the present and the end of 2022.
“The number of flights is huge and the passenger aviation infrastructure is overloaded, something we haven’t even experienced for a long time,” said Ohio-based NetJets.
The company estimates that the number of flights delayed due to air traffic control in June 2021 has reached about 10 times that of the same month of the previous year, when the number of flights dropped sharply in the pandemic.
According to NetJets, flight demand is “currently renewing all peaks (which the company has experienced in the last 57 years),” compared to less than 400 flights per day in 2019. It is said that the average number of flights has reached around 500.
“Most owners have been able to continue to use it on their recent flights, but some seem to find it inconvenient due to rising demand throughout the industry,” the company said.
Fly Exclusive, which provides jet aircraft to charter flight operators as a kind of wholesale business, has seen a significant increase in requests for provision since the shortage of aircraft on the client side became noticeable.
Investors are watching the trends in the private jet market. Operators are important customers for business jet manufacturers.
Flight delays have created dissatisfaction among the wealthy who use private jets, and there are already moves to look for alternatives.
Amanda Applegate, a partner at Airex Law Group, a law firm specializing in aviation, said she received 10 calls from customers who were dissatisfied with the service in September alone.
“When things are going well, I don’t get such calls, or at most once or twice every six months,” Applegate said. He deals with the sale and purchase of aircraft ownership and is a base for disseminating information to customers.
Applegate says he has no idea how to respond to private jet customers seeking the best service. “Anyway, I can only say that I don’t have enough capacity.”
Ian Moore, Chief Commercial Officer of VistaJet, a private jet company, also penalizes customers in the private jet industry for canceling or postponing flight reservations just because the meeting is prolonged. He says he is running out of room to overlook without it.
Nowadays, planes don’t wait for such customers. “There isn’t enough supply capacity to admit selfishness,” Moore said.
(Translation: Acrelen)
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