Private air travel is prospering under the pandemic.
In fact, interest is so high that many private jet companies have a different problem of their hands: keeping up with demand.
Private aviation company VistaJet said new memberships for the first half of 2021 are up 53% compared to 2020, with Europe bringing in the greatest number of new members (51%) during this period.
“It’s no surprise that searches for ‘charter travel’ have increased by 520% over the last 12 months,” said Naveen Dittakavi, CEO of the flight website Next Vacay. “Searches for ‘if you wanted to take a private plane’ have increased by 1,100% in the past 12 months worldwide.”
Most people who can afford to fly privately don’t, said Gregg Brunson-Pitts, founder of Advanced Aviation Team, a Virginia-based private jet broker. The pandemic caused some of those people to book private jets, many for the very first time.
“People … have come off the sidelines,” he said. “It wasn’t just the wealthy people with means —governments were using them. They were a way to move around supplies so our business picked up pretty rapidly even during the shutdown.”
When asked who is considered as someone able to afford private travel, Gregg Brunson-Pitts said “maybe someone with a net worth of $5 million or more.”
Flashpop | Stone | Getty Images
Brunson-Pitts, who was the director of the Travel Office at the White House during President George W. Bush’s second term in office, acknowledged charter jet pricing isn’t as transparent as commercial flying. But there are reasons for this, he said.
Unlike a commercial flight — where passengers are flying on the same plane at the same time on the same date — charter jets vary considerably by size and service (none vs. “VIP catering and flight attendants”), said Brunson-Pitts. Due to rising demand, flexibility around travel dates also affects prices, he said.
As such, a flight for a family of four from New York City to Washington, D.C., could easily vary from $10,000 to $50,000, he said, depending on customers’ requirements.
To get a broader idea around prices, CNBC spoke with newly converted private flyers about how much they paid for their first flights during the pandemic.
‘Wrestled for years with the costs’
Name: Jarrett Preston
Profession: CEO of international asset trading company Idoneus
Preston said he was “a very occasional private flier” prior to the pandemic.
“I wrestled for years with the costs and benefits of private travel,” said Preston. “As the global pandemic moved into full swing and flights were drastically reduced or rerouted, lines became longer [and] incidences of violence on board aircraft increased, I decided that private air travel was necessary.”
Jarrett Preston said he flies privately for three reasons: safety, security and efficiency.
Courtesy of Jarrett Preston
He paid around $10,500 to fly from Tampa to Miami and back with Florida-based Monarch Air Group charter service.
“Beyond the incalculable time savings, my safety and that…
Read More: How much does it cost to charter a flight? New flyers share prices