Private jet rush prompts plane shortage as rich dodge airline woes

The patchy return of scheduled flights is diverting record numbers of wealthy travellers to private jets, prompting an aircraft crunch as the industry scrambles to increase capacity. More than 4.2m private jet flights have taken place this year, according to aviation data provider WingX, with a record number in each of the past six months. In the first week of November they were up 54 per cent on the same period last year, and up 16% on 2019. Flexjet’s CE “pretty much spent the last nine months shopping for aircraft”, said the fractional ownership company’s European managing director Marine Eugene. Industry executives say rising wealth among the rich, particularly in the US, has also stoked the private flying boom. Demand is so high that Flexjet has stopped taking on new customers for its entry-level Jet Card programme. So has NetJets, which has reported the highest demand for flying in its near 60-year history and is investing about $2.5b in 100 new aircraft. Used jet inventories are at historic lows, according to Jefferies, with just 861 aircraft for sale in October, half the number available a year previously. But sales are rising despite the low numbers available. Consultancy Ascend by Cirium said second-hand sales in the first nine months of the year had been almost 10% higher than in the same period in 2019. “For the first time in a very long time you are seeing distressed buyers . . . people are paying above asking price and there is simply a dearth of availability that has never been seen,” said Anna Kopinski, an analyst at mba Aviation. <br/>