The Covid-19 pandemic has had a serious impact on the global economy, and the private jet market is no exception. After a few months of growth early in 2020, the sector experienced a dramatic drop as the world-wide lockdown put a halt to business travel and personal trips. One of the hardest hit areas has been charter services. Prior to the pandemic, leisure trips accounted for most of the business, with large percentages of those flights being to luxury and exotic destinations, such as Ibiza and the Bahamas. However, few people have had the luxury of being able to fly privately during these times, as the risk of cross contamination between passengers has been too great. Airports have also implemented strict security procedures that have deterred people from taking private jets.

The reduced demand has driven prices down sharply as well. The average rates are now 30 to 50 percent below the pre-pandemic level. This has put heavy pressure on private jet operators, particularly those that had invested heavily in new aircraft, as their costs suddenly soared beyond the capacity to recoup the expenses from the revenue.

Private jet companies have been forced to lay off thousands of workers and take drastic measures to survive the downturn. Many companies have moved away from short-term contracts with customers and focused instead on longer term agreements for subscriptions, structured as leases or aircraft management programs. This has greatly lowered their running costs and allowed them to remain competitive in the market. At the same time, however, the lack of leisure travel has meant that the industry can’t rely on the type of business activity that normally drove up the number of flights. Furthermore, the effects of the pandemic on global trade have greatly reduced the number of corporate and high-end commercial trips that take place.

The private jet industry is likely to remain in a depressed state until the widespread availability of a safe and effective vaccine. Despite the fact that technology that could make the flight experience less risky has been employed, the market shows no signs of recovering anytime soon. With the economic recession that seems to be upon us – and with air transport still being the first affected and the last to recover from any crisis – the situation for private jet companies is far from promising.