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Business aviation has almost doubled its market share compared to 2019 to rise to 12% of air transport in 2021, according to Eurocontrol.
In this file photo taken on May 19, 2015, stewardesses are seen inside a Bombardier Global 6000 business jet operated by Vistajet.
AFP
Between the “Flygskam” (the shame of flying), the pandemic and now the surge in oil prices, airlines are accumulating turbulence. Private jet operators have rarely fared so well.
Faced with the fear of the virus, but also with the elimination of many scheduled flights, the demand for private jets has soared. According to Eurocontrol, the traffic monitoring body, business aviation has almost doubled its market share compared to 2019 to rise to 12% of air transport in 2021.
“Private aviation as a whole has seen an incredible increase in demand,” confirms Philippe Scalabrini, VistaJet’s director for Southern Europe.
“People who can afford it want an entire plane at their disposal, without having to share,” he explains. Last year, this “Covid effect” boosted the number of flight hours sold by this private jet company by 90%.
The demand was such that this company founded in 2004 by the Swiss billionaire Thomas Flohr announced the acquisition of the German Air Hamburg at the end of February, three days before the invasion of Ukraine, in order to increase its number by 30%. flight hours.
If it is “a little early” to assess the consequences of the conflict, Mr. Scalabrini remains globally confident.
Russian customers represent “less than 5%” of its turnover. And with tensions in supply chains, “business leaders are in a hurry to return to see their suppliers in Asia,” he argues.
A $72 million plane
VistaJet had suspended all flights to Russia before the sanctions while waiting to see how the situation would develop.
“We were afraid of having planes grounded”, explains Mr. Scalabrini, who presented in Geneva the flagship of the VistaJet fleet, a Global 7500 jet from the Canadian manufacturer Bombardier, which costs 72 million dollars (68 million francs).
With contracts that start at 500,000 euros per year, almost as much in francs, Vistajet mainly targets wealthy individuals and business leaders, with a growing number now coming from the technology sector. The clientele reflects “the general evolution of the economy”, he notes.
Ten times more polluting
A private jet flight is ten times more polluting than a commercial flight, according to the NGO Transport and Environment.
Environmental issues will be one of the “big issues” in business aviation, according to Philippe Berland, air transport specialist at Sia-Partners.
In the short term, the question is how air travel will absorb the shock of oil prices and whether private jet companies will manage to retain the new clientele that has flooded in during the pandemic with the resumption of commercial aviation.
“In this segment where the flight hour is already very expensive, the price is not the only factor. When you board at Le Bourget, the departure is very fast, ”he underlines, some of these customers being likely to have taken a liking to private jet flights.
According to Pascal Fabre, aeronautical expert from Alix Partners, business aviation is “very insensitive to the price of oil”.
When a company or an individual buys an aircraft “at several tens of millions of dollars, the fuel bill is not a concern, even at more than 100 dollars a barrel”, he assures.
(AFP)
