COVID 19 and Business Aviation

With major airlines appearing in the news a lot recently talking about loss of income due to the COVID 19 pandemic, what is future for Business aviation?  Will the sector be more resilient than the commercial sector who seem to be down sizing and making redundancies, or will it follow the same flight plan.  As a pilot who has just been made redundant from his bizjet job due to the pandemic you could say that I would argue that it will.  However, I am optimistic that the business sector will see the strongest growth and I am not the only one.  Business Insider published a story on 9 May where private jet industry CEOs predicted a boom as the wealthy abandoned airlines because of health and safety fears.  AIN Online published an article on 2 June citing  the Flexjet CEO where their aircraft utilisation had doubled over the previous 3 weeks after the COVID induced lull, and that new customer leads were ‘off the charts’.  However, contrary to these two stories was a Forbes article on 9 June which had a contradictory feel, where three indicators that it believed drives the market (Oil prices, Corporate profits and stock prices) showed that no one could actually predict what would happen.

My own view is based on personal experiences in travel whilst countries have been locked down; as a working pilot I was able to travel freely and visited Europe and the USA.  Travelling at this time is fearful; the airport shops and restaurants are all closed, and everyone has to wear masks and gloves in the airport and on the plane  The airlines that are still operating do not observe ‘social distancing’ so you are jammed next to a stranger.  Even in business class on British Airways no food or drinks were served on an Atlantic crossing.  Hotels are offering a minimum service.  All this creates a fear factor and the anxiety of fellow travellers is palpable. Therefore, if you can afford to fly in your own personal space for business or pleasure, without wearing masks and gloves, and eating and drinking what and when you want, then you will do so.  After populations have been told they had to stay at home for the last few months, once the countries open their borders then people will travel.  Airlines will have reduced the number of flights and may be forced into ‘social distancing’ on their aircraft, which means fewer seats available at the time that travel is required.  And masks and gloves.

So, I foresee a busy summer for the bizjet sector, and those companies that didn’t prepare will lose out to those that did.  The number of revenue flights in my own company has really start to rise and we are seeing numbers approaching a normal season.  And this is before some of the countries of our busiest city pairs have opened their borders to international travel.  Once the UK and France allow movement without ‘self isolation’ after travel, then I can see there will be an exponential increase in bizjet use.  With experts predicting a second wave of the pandemic, people will work and play while they can before they are locked down again.  I don’t think I will be out of work for long.