Since the pandemic's outbreak, European business aviation has shown resilience, growing stronger while commercial aviation suddenly sank into crisis. After acknowledging the growth of private jet demand starting from June last year, GlobeAir is confident that entry-level jet charters will see an additional 20 per cent boost in 2021.

According to the European Organization for the Safety of Aviation (Eurocontrol) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), commercial airlines have lost 55 per cent 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 travel.

“2020 saw GlobeAir's new accounts base grow 89 per cent more than in 2019 and double-digit inquiries growth in December 2020 (+24 per cent) and January 2021 (+17 per cent),” says VP of marketing and sales Jonathan Berdoz. “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).”

Biosecurity is said to be the determining factor. When flying on a commercial airline, passengers 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 throughout 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, according to GlobeAir. No matter if vaccination programmes have begun, they won't be enough to solve the biosecurity concern for yet another year, it adds. Many European countries don't consider vaccines as a green card to travel freely without being tested multiple times. There are likely to be more short haul than long haul flights, and passengers will demand flexibility in rebookings and rescheduling. Commercial airlines may not restore many of the suspended routes, especially those connecting regional and smaller airports.

“The industry is on the front foot in 2021,” WingX MD Richard Koe confirms. “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. Since the pandemic, GlobeAir has managed to stay within one per cent of its 2019 run-rate, operating almost 9,000 sectors across over 300 airports during 2020.”

Experienced by the lessons learned after the 2008 crisis, from which GlobeAir was born and consequently developed and perfected its ad hoc air taxi business model, the operator expected a high volume of requests over Easter. Sales experts at GlobeAir predict that Sardinia, Corsica, the Balearic Islands and Côte d'Azur will be the summer's top destinations. It 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 it will expand its fleet to be ready for the summer to accomplish the above plans. They also reaffirmed the importance of focusing on customer support excellence and 24/7 availability to react fast to last-minute enquiries.

CEO Bernhard Fragner comments: “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. 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.

“We have seen that with the Cessna Citation Mustang jet our air taxi model works best. With the city pairs taken for meetings in Europe with this entry-level-jet category we are proud to be one of Europe’s leading private jet operator in this category.”