Private jet operators are turning away wealthy clients as coronavirus-related travel bans restrict their ability to operate, despite a surge in requests from people willing to shell out as much as $150,000 to secure a spot on their planes.<\/p>\n
Inquiries for international flights on private jets have shot up ninefold, said Kanika Tekriwal, founder of New Delhi-based JetSetGo, as individuals with vast financial means try to escape virus hot spots. One of her clients, an Indian tycoon, tried to book a jet to fly with his family to New Delhi from London last weekend, but he remains stranded in the U.K. after a sudden travel suspension in a stopover country came in just half an hour before they were due to depart.<\/p>\n
India then announced a ban on flights from Europe and the U.K. on Monday, potentially leaving the tycoon stranded in London indefinitely. The India ban comes into effect Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cRules are changing every half an hour,\u201d Tekriwal said in an interview Monday, declining to identify the tycoon because of client confidentiality. \u201cNo one knows who\u2019s changing what, some countries are suddenly not allowing pilots of some countries, some countries are not allowing aircraft of some countries.\u201d<\/p>\n
India extended its ban to countries including Malaysia and the Philippines on Tuesday, as confirmed coronavirus cases in the country rose to 125.<\/p>\n
The pandemic, which has killed more than 7,000 people and infected over 1,82,000, has driven aviation into an unprecedented crisis that, according to Sydney-based CAPA Centre for Aviation, could push most of the world\u2019s airlines into bankruptcy by the end of May as governments hastily impose entry and quarantine rules. The private jet industry isn\u2019t immune to those restrictions, even as inquiries surge about bookings, including from Americans in Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a new directive or advisory coming out every day,\u201d said Rajan Mehra, who heads business aviation company Club One Air. \u201cTourism is practically frozen for the time being and corporates are not traveling at all unless they have to.\u201d<\/p>\n
JetSetGo\u2019s Tekriwal, who oversees a fleet of 28 private aircraft, said the surge in inquiries is essentially for one-time flights back home so it doesn\u2019t reflect healthy demand. Overall, 87% of scheduled bookings with her company have been canceled, she said. Mehra\u2019s company, which operates 10 planes, has seen travel decline as much as 70%.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are extremely worried as to what the future holds, how we\u2019re going to pay salaries,\u201d Tekriwal said. \u201cIt\u2019s a ripple effect. If industries and corporates don\u2019t do well, where will they get money to pay for us? We\u2019re considered a luxury, a high-cost industry, so we get hit first.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Private jet operators are turning away wealthy clients as coronavirus-related travel bans restrict their ability to operate, despite a surge in requests from people willing to shell out as much as $150,000 to secure a spot on their planes. Inquiries for international flights on private jets have shot up ninefold, said Kanika Tekriwal, founder of New Delhi-based JetSetGo, as individuals with vast financial means try to escape virus hot spots. One of her clients, an Indian tycoon, tried to book a jet to fly with his family to New Delhi from London last weekend, but he remains stranded in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[229],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-civil-aviation"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342275\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/infralive.com\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}