With future air travel looking less and less pleasurable during the crisis, people are looking for alternatives. For those used to flying in business or first class, private jets may be the answer as a temporary measure. A private jet may seem like the preserve of the ultra-wealthy, but there are ways to travel on one for the price of a normal airline ticket. In fact, I flew on one last year for only £250 ($308). So how do you fly on a private jet for less?
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The appeal of a private jet for travel during the current pandemic is two-fold. Firstly, all airlines have made significant cuts to their schedules making it hard to reach many cities without multiple stops. This leads onto the second concern of commercial travel, safety. Although airlines are minimising risk with face masks and enhanced cleaning, many people are still nervous about flying. You still have to navigate through the airport and security, and then onboard many airlines are not applying social distancing unless they are empty enough to do so.
Hahn Air private jet
Private jets solve or lessen these issues. If you were to rent an entire jet the risk of infection dissipates significantly. Often you can drive up to the aircraft directly too. Private jet companies are offering substantial steps to ensuring passenger safety which can be harder on a large commercial airline. For example, Netjets who offer fractional ownership of private jets, have a large number of precautions. These include pre-flight screening for all passengers, twice daily crew temperature checks, masks and deep cleaning of aircraft every two days.
Hahn Air view of the cockpit
There are several ways to fly on a private jet for less. Shared or semi private jets have been catching on fast in recent years. This is where you just buy a single seat on an aircraft. I flew with Hahn Air for around £250($308) on a regular service on their CJ4 aircraft between Luxembourg and Dusseldorf. In the US JetSuiteX is similar but on a larger scale. Thirty-seater aircraft with business class style seating fly a range of routes around the West Coast of the USA, with prices starting from around $140 return.
If you would like something more exclusive, then an empty leg may be the way to go. Empty legs are when the private jet has dropped off passengers somewhere or going to collect them and the aircraft has to travel without any passengers. Obviously, this still costs money to operate, so companies will sell this off at a much-reduced price. Companies in the UK and US that sell empty legs include Air Partner, Victor and Jetpartners. The prices are still not exactly cheap, but if you were to fill the plane you could get seats starting around $500 per person in the US or £500 per person in the UK. Some prices are also open to negotiation, particularly very close to the time.
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The downside to empty legs is that you can never predict what will come up and when, so you need to be flexible. Some companies operate a weekly mailing list with flights available one to three weeks in advance.
If you are likely to want to fly on a private jet more regularly, shared private jet clubs have gained popularity over the last few years. Many have since failed, but a small number have survived. These companies operate a membership scheme where you can usually fly as much as you want on their private jets. This comes at the cost of a joining fee plus a flight or monthly fee. However, you will usually be sharing the space with other people like the other shared jets that are open to anyone.
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Shared private jet clubs operate a set schedule to various destinations, so you don’t have the flexibility like you would with a private jet. The plus side is that it saves a huge amount of time in the airport as you fly from a private terminal. With some public airports saying that passengers will now have to arrive four hours before a flight, being able to turn up last minute is a huge advantage to the time-poor traveler.
One such company in the UK and USA is XO (formally JetSmarter). They offer various memberships, even for those that fly less than 15 hours a year. Flexibility is the selling point of their memberships with the ability to book a single seat or a whole jet.
Whether private jets become more normal as the world takes to take to the skies again is a conundrum. While people have a stronger than ever desire for safe and convenient travel, the financial fallout of the pandemic may mean that many private jet companies are no longer sustainable.