Private jets soar on demand from super rich

Chennai: With the Covid pandemic bringing safety to the fore, super rich are clicking the private option by signing up for chartered planes and jets. While the price differential of Rs 7,000 per person per hour between first class air travel and private planes existed, the need for safety by travelling with known people and their health record is resulting in private jet operators witness a 30% increase in enquiries. “We have seen a nine fold increase in demand just before the lockdown was announced and were able to fulfil only 50%-60% of the requests mainly because the regulations kept changing overnight in one country or the other. Post the lockdowns, we’ve received 10-12 requests a day to bring home people stuck in various parts of the world,” said Kanika Tekriwal, CEO & founder of the Delhi-based JetSetGo Aviation.
That included parents of kids or children of elderly parents stuck in different parts of the world. “Since no commercial flights were operating people were reaching out to us,” she said.