Private jet travel encroaching on airlines’ market share

Travellers who made the switch to private jet travel during the pandemic are not rushing to get back on commercial airlines, new data shows.

Private jet travel is showing no sign of waning following the return of regular public transport flights by airlines. Picture: Getty Images

The demand for private jets and charter air services in Australia is showing no sign of waning, even as commercial airline capacity returns to 2019 levels.

Data from the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics showed in March, 310,600 passengers travelled on private jets and charter flights, unchanged from a year earlier.

The figure represents a 47 per cent increase on pre-Covid-19 times, when 210,800 people a month flew on charter flights.

It also signals a potentially permanent shift in travel preference with charter flights now carrying almost 8 per cent of all domestic air passengers, compared to 4.1 per cent in 2019.

Paul Crook from Air Charter Services in Sydney said clients who made the switch from airlines to private air travel were not going back.

“In the two years where we had Covid and observed a number of restrictions, a lot of clients started accessing private jets and it’s now part of their routine,” said Mr Crook.

“Our database has grown exponentially and they’re not looking to change with the bigger commercial flights returning.”

Much of his company’s work was overseas charters with demand in Europe “off the charts”.

“Not everyone is chartering a private jet from Australia but once they get to Europe they’re using jets so they can hop around without being at the mercy of commercial schedules which are not quite back to what they were,” Mr Crook said.

“It’s not so bad if you’re flying from Paris to Rome, but if you want to go to Mykonos, then a private jet is much easier.”

Images of airport chaos and frequently changing flight schedules had only helped the private jet business to the point where aircraft availability had become an issue.

Mr Crook said it could now take three or four calls to find a suitable jet for an urgent travel request, as opposed to one or two pre-pandemic.

“We don’t use the main terminals so there’s no queuing, and it can be as little as 10-minutes from when someone arrives at the airport to takeoff,” he said.

“The amount of time saved is invaluable for business people and their companies.”

Air Charter Group general manager James Baldwin was seeing a similar story after one of the busiest years on record.

“It’s definitely consistent. There are no (charter) companies out there who aren’t busy,” said Mr Baldwin.

“I don’t think there’s a lot of people who would want to hop on an aircraft with 200 other passengers any more.”

A resurgence in fly-in, fly-out activity was also helping to keep the charter industry ticking along as more new jets came into the country from the US.

Mr Baldwin said most buyers of private jets subsidised the cost by making them available for charter work.

“The increase in fuel price has made charter flights more expensive. It’s adding about 10 to 15 per cent to the cost at the moment,” he said.

As an example, a flight from Sydney to the Gold Coast return for four to five people, would cost between $14,000 and $18,000.

BITRE data also showed there had been a shift towards smaller groups of people on charter flights, possibly due to social distancing on larger aircraft used for FIFO services.

In March, each charter flight carried an average 52 people compared to 58 in March 2019.