20% growth for entry-level private jet charters in 2021 - GlobeAir

Aviation experts including Europe’s market leader GlobeAir predict a YoY volume growth of 20% for entry-level private jet charters in 2021. Since the pandemic's outbreak, European business aviation has shown particular resilience, growing stronger while commercial aviation suddenly sank into an unexpected crisis. After acknowledging the growth of private jet demand starting from June 2020, GlobeAir is confident that entry-level jet charters will see an additional 20 percent boost in the current year.

According to the European Organization for the Safety of Aviation (Eurocontrol) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), commercial airlines have lost 55% of their flight volume to COVID-19. With airliners suddenly becoming unavailable and less reliable, coupled with high biosecurity concerns, more and more affluent flyers have started to charter private jets for essential travels.

"2020 saw GlobeAir's new accounts base grow 89% more than in 2019 and double-digit inquiries growth in December 2020 (+ 24%) and January 2021 (+ 17%). This trend may be due to the growth of converters and downgraders. The first being frequent flyers who have switched to private jet services (converters); the latter being private jet travellers who now prefer entry-level jet services (downgraders)," says VP of Marketing & Sales Jonathan Berdoz.

Biosecurity is the determining factor here. When flying on a commercial airline, you may risk exposure to an average of 700 touchpoints compared to only 20 touchpoints on a private jet journey.

Current travel trends indicate that the industry will still face disruptions during 2021. There will always be a strong focus on safety, flexibility, and accountability in an increasingly regulated air travel environment. Both commercial and private airlines will have to make those aspects central parts of their strategies to stay afloat. No matter if vaccination programs have begun, those won't be enough to solve the biosecurity concern for yet another year. Today, for example, many European countries don't consider vaccines as a green card to travel freely without being tested multiple times. There will be more short-haul than long-haul flights, and passengers will demand the highest flexibility in rebookings and rescheduling. Commercial airlines won't be restoring many of the suspended routes, especially those connecting regional and smaller airports.

"The industry is on the front foot in 2021. Business aviation has increased its competitive advantages over the airlines by providing a controlled travel bubble, an on-demand schedule and seamless connectivity. There are strong economic headwinds, and we would expect the utility-focused air-taxi market to weather these conditions best. One obvious example is GlobeAir, Europe’s leading entry-level jet operator; since the pandemic, GlobeAir has managed to stay within 1% of its 2019 run-rate, operating almost 9,000 sectors across over 300 airports during 2020," says WingX Managing Director Richard Koe.

Experienced by the lessons learned after the 2008 crisis – from which GlobeAir was born and consequently developed and perfected the "ad-hoc" air-taxi business model, GlobeAir expects a high volume of requests coming in during Easter. Today, sales experts at GlobeAir predict that Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Islands and Côte d'Azur will be next summer's top destinations. GlobeAir is tightening its relationships with key partners to provide tailored all-in-one experiences, including travel and accommodation solutions, to accommodate new-normalised travel needs. The company has announced they will expand their fleet to be ready for the summer to accomplish the above plans. They also reaffirmed the importance of focussing on customer support excellence and 24/7 availability to react fast to last-minute inquiries.

"After the challenging events of the previous year, we are starting 2021 with renewed optimism. It is both a challenging and exciting time for business aviation, with space for innovation and new concepts no matter the crisis. My entire #DreamTeam and I see the future very positively and are eager to make the best of it and motivated to continue growing organically. We are sure that we will come out of this crisis stronger and that many new ideas from our project pool will become a reality. We are also registering an increase in carbon offset requests coming from large corporations and athletes flying private," says GlobeAir CEO Bernhard Fragner.

GlobeAir is striving to keep communications up on all of its channels, taking care of updating travel restrictions regularly. Monthly, the company keeps stakeholders and followers updated about their operations, highlighting industry trends and hard facts via their website and social media channels.