It's all yours up in the air — for a pretty penny

The novel coronavirus is forcing more stranded passengers to use private jets despite the high cost of flights. Edith Lu reports from Hong Kong.

It might not have been an ostentatious remark.

"It's the most expensive air ticket I've ever paid for in my life," recalls a young student, ostensibly from one of the ultra-rich Chinese mainland families, as he tells about how his family dished out a staggering 2.5 million yuan (US$353,000) to fly him back from the United States to the mainland on a specially chartered private aircraft early last month.

It was at the peak of the scramble by thousands of panic-stricken people to get out of coronavirus-ravaged Europe and the US.

Sharing his experience on Shanghai-based Xiaohongshu — one of the world's largest social e-commerce platforms for users to review products or relate their escapades with the community — the New York University student recounted the 17-hour flight from Big Apple aboard the 12-seater Bombardier Global 6000 jet, which landed in Hong Kong on April 7 after a stopover in Anchorage, Alaska.

As a Hong Kong resident, he was allowed to enter the city, and made his way back to Shenzhen across the boundary after completing his mandatory 14-day quarantine in the SAR.

Increasing demand

There's a similar story about two months ago of a flurry of people clamoring for a seat on a private jet from London to Shanghai with a price tag of 180,000 yuan as the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world's commercial aviation market to its knees.

The coronavirus turmoil has suddenly thrust what's traditionally seen as exclusive, swank private-jet travel out into the open, seemingly no longer an ultimate luxury for the super-rich or something out of passion or improvidence, but an absolute necessity in times of crisis. It has caught up with Chinese students and businessmen alike in Europe and the US, clambering to get home for fear of contracting the coronavirus, with China seen as safe ground as infections are reduced to a trickle.

Due to locked borders and crippled commercial flights, they haven't got much of a choice but to pay through their nose to hop onto flights that come just once a week, or opt for private flights that are safer and more convenient, but cost a pretty penny.

The quest for short-notice, on-demand private-jet charters has gone through the roof, particularly long-haul flights, with private aviation companies' phones ringing off the hook for inquiries.

Sino Jet — a business jet management company headquartered in both Hong Kong and Beijing — has 45 aircraft under its wing. It said it has been on the receiving end of some 2,000 requests lately for business-jet flights from students and anxious parents, and the company is running out of resources.

Malta-based VistaJet, whose fleet boasts more than 70 ultra-long-range Bombardier Global 6000 business jets, is among a handful of private-jet companies with offices in Hong Kong and on the mainland. It saw a 16 percent, year-on-year surge in the number of times its aircraft had taken to the air in the first two-and-a-half months of this year. In China, the increase in flights during the same period was 19 percent, mostly to and from Hong Kong and Macao.

The Hong Kong Business Aviation Centre, which operates business aircraft round the clock, providing technical support, ground handling and passenger and crew services, said business-jet flights have gone up 3 percent in the first quarter, compared to the same period a year ago. The demand has been greater since the Spring Festival in late January, with a big portion being charter flights.

"This time round, people realize they have to spend money to avoid being cooped up in large commercial aircraft, or at airports swamped with people they don't know. The advantages of a private jet have really come to the forefront," Ian Moore, chief commercial officer of VistaJet, told China Daily.

According to Moore, for the greater part of February, they flew clients out of Asia which, at the time, was most severely affected by the outbreak. But, subsequently, it was the other way round. The huge air traffic volume was Asia-bound in March, with Italy emerging as the hotspot of the global pandemic after the coronavirus changed course and took on the rest of the world.

"Moving into March, it was probably one of the easiest times (to get clients) and the busiest time in terms of operations," said Moore. He added that he saw the demand at its peak in China in March.

The HKBAC also confirmed that the majority of recent flights involved repatriating people stranded in some of the worst-hit countries and regions in Europe and from the US.

The list of perks involving private-jet travel is long — privacy, comfort, flexibility, VIP-like escorts at airport terminals, free baggage handling on top of the prestige that comes with it.