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

Private aviation companies usually provide two types of product services — helping the rich to manage their own private jets, and offering air charter to individual clients.

These days, many passengers on chartered flights are newcomers to the private jet age. According to VistaJet, in the first two weeks of March, they flew many regular members and their families back to their homes or "safe" places. The situation took a twist from the second half of March, with more new and one-off customers seeking charter flights to various locations. VistaJet then started offering more "individual repatriation flights", which the company, normally, wouldn't do.

A Sino Jet spokesperson said it was the first time for most of the Chinese students in Europe and the US to fly on private business aircraft. The company had to be particularly careful in transferring them to airports to make sure they wouldn't be exposed to the virus.

"The skyrocketing prices may not seem reasonable in terms of the cost-to-income ratio. But, it's inevitable with aircraft in short supply," said Lin Zhijie, an aviation industry analyst.

Usually, the cost of air-charter travel is dictated by a host of factors — the type of jet preferred, reposition locations, the availability of take-off and landing airports, as well as the flight hours to be consumed.

A large majority of the air-charter market supply is made up of inactive aircraft owned by the ultra-rich, said Moore. As the pandemic escalated, many aircraft that had been in the market earlier in the year have been "retrieved" by owners who want to keep them for themselves, or they are reluctant to let strangers use them.

With a dearth of planes at departure locations, private-jet operators are forced to find new resources and use empty aircraft to pick up clients. This is a key element in the rising cost of air-charter services, according to Sino Jet.

Market expected to rebound

The private jet company expects demand to stay high in the coming two months as the coronavirus threat in many countries remains grave. By the end of March, the so-called repatriation surge in air travel had ended with stricter measures in place in various countries.

To contain the risk of imported COVID-19 cases, the Civil Aviation Administration of China has enforced stringent regulations on the number of inbound private-jet flights, with just up to five flights permitted to land in cities on the mainland each day. However, the actual number of daily flights could be three.

According to the latest statistics released by WingX — a data analytics data firm specializing in the business-jet industry — global business aviation activity has dwindled by 68 percent from April 1 to May 5.

"Most people have got home or arrived in safe locations by now. So, you're seeing a downward push on pricing given the fact that not many people are flying as they were before," said Moore.

Considering the economic shock from the pandemic, he expects the wealthy elite to use air-charter services more instead of buying their own jets in future after the virus is gone.

With the cautious and gradual relaxation of virus-suppression policies, the entire private aviation market is looking for signs of recovery in various regions of Asia, especially in their domestic markets.

Sino Jet sees the demand for China's domestic private-jet flights possibly making a rebound in the next three months as people shake off their virus nightmares and return to work.