Viral charter flights hit record heights

One sector of the aviation industry has set a new record in the COVID crisis as charter flights take off.

Charter operators are keen to promote the message that private jet flights are not only for the rich and famous, like model Indiana Thew. Picture: Instagram.

The crippling effect of the COVID crisis on the aviation industry has proven to be a boon for one sector, with the number of charter flights operated in June setting a new Australian record.

Data published by the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics, showed just under 6000 charter flights took place in June, an increase of 69.8 per cent on the same time last year.

A BITRE spokesman said the increase was the biggest on record since the collection of charter flight data began in 2011.

The next biggest rise was in April when 5519 charter services operated, a leap of 43.4 per cent from April 2019. In recent years, charter flights have averaged between 3500 and 4000 a month, down from 4600 to 5000 in the period from 2013 to 2015.

The figures do not include helicopter, joy flights and sightseeing charter flights.

The number of passengers carried by charter flights climbed a more modest 21 per cent in June, the third largest hike on record after April 2013 (24.4 per cent) and December 2019 (23 per cent).

One of the biggest beneficiaries of the charter flight boom, Alliance Airlines, experienced a dramatic ramp up in demand from the resources sector early on in the COVID crisis.

The lift helped the airline to a $40m pre-tax profit for the 2020 financial year and managing ­director Scott McMillan said he expected the move away from scheduled commercial flights would last long after the pandemic eased.

“What we have seen from our existing customer base and our new customers is that they really do like the simplicity of a charter and the fact they can design the charter schedules around shift changes,” Mr McMillan said.

“That means a lot less issues with fatigue and people sitting around waiting for a flight.”

Outside the resources sector, the charter work was less consistent but still a welcome source of income for smaller operators, such as Air Gold Coast.

Chief executive officer Peter Long said the lack of frequency of scheduled commercial flights was the main driver of demand for their charter services.

“We are seeing a big increase in inquiries from people who have not chartered a plane before,” Mr Long said. “It could well continue beyond the current pandemic if people are not comfortable about travelling in big groups.”

The embrace of charter flying has even inspired one operator to propose a “jet-pooling” arrangement for busy executives when border restrictions eased.

Martin Grant of Melbourne’s Skippy Air Charter said he planned to launch the service on Australia’s east coast to carry business people between major cities in “complete safety”.

With Melbourne-Sydney already one of the world’s busiest routes carrying over 9 million passengers a year, Mr Grant said he was confident of finding eight people keen to jet-pool on a Sovereign Citation.