While the coronavirus pandemic has sent global airline travel into a nosedive, some private jet companies have seen a surge in demand as wealthy Russians seek to ride out the pandemic in the West.
People are heading for countries such as Britain and Cyprus where they own property, have residency rights — sometimes thanks to holding dual nationality — or have close relatives, industry sources told Reuters.
They are paying from 16,000–25,000 euros per flight ($26,000–41,500), a fee that can cover up to 13 passengers, the sources added.
"People are tired of lockdown living … they are looking for ways to get out," said Aleksandr Osit, owner of the JETVIP broker company.
He said his company registered a surge in one-way Europe-bound flights in the last two months.
Read our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic
The use of private aircraft when most airlines stopped flying is not illegal and not unique to Russia, with reports of Chinese flying home from the United States and Americans landing in elite domestic vacation spots.
In March, there were 250 private jet round flights between Moscow and Europe, flight tracking data from 80 planes registered with Russian and European charter firms shows, though the data did not specify how many people were on board each jet.
Flights continued in April, albeit falling to 61 round trips that month despite the Russian Government suspending regular and commercial charter flights to and from the country with some exceptions, in addition to a lockdown of Moscow, which has been Russia's coronavirus epicentre.
By this month, the frequency of private jet flights rose to 107 between May 1–26.
Three aviation sources said the number of Russians flying into the country in March outweighed those leaving at a time when Russia had relatively low confirmed coronavirus cases, and European countries were reporting far greater numbers.
Read our full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic
In the United Kingdom particularly, the presence of Russia's super-rich has been a familiar one since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Some Russians were beneficiaries of the country's resources boom around the turn of the millennium and many of them emigrated to London in the 1990s.
Over subsequent decades, this saw prized London real estate and some English football clubs coming into the hands of Russia's super-rich, while their children were educated in Britain's storied public schools.
This post-Iron Wall migration has earned the British capital the moniker Londongrad.
Thomas Picketty, an award-winning French economist, has estimated that the offshore assets held by Russia's hyper-rich exceed that of one year of Russian GDP, or "the equivalent of the entirety of the official financial assets held by Russian households".
"In other words, the natural wealth of the country has been massively exported abroad to sustain opaque structures enabling a minority to hold huge Russian and international financial assets," Mr Picketty wrote.
"These rich Russians live between London, Monaco and Moscow: some have never left Russia and control their country via offshore entities."
And it appears as though it's these people who are keeping private jet operators' coffers full amid the coronavirus-induced global economic downturn.
Jet Partners, which offers private jet flights, said it was experiencing an increase in requests for destinations in France, Spain, Cyprus, Britain and other European countries.
"People believe that it is safer for them to be at their private residences abroad," said Margarita Lomakina, the company's commercial director.
Stanislav Kruglov, an account manager with Vip Group Aero, said he had received dozens of requests from mid-April for flights to Vienna, Riga, and Cyprus from individuals and families with children.
The Sirius Aero private jet airline said prices for flights were 20-30 per cent lower in April and May, compared to the same period last year.
Rosaviatsia, Russia's federal aviation industry, declined to comment on the patterns in private jet use.
ABC/Reuters
See our full coverage of coronavirus
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
This service may include material from Agence France-Presse (AFP), APTN, Reuters, AAP, CNN and the BBC World Service which is copyright and cannot be reproduced.
AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time which is 10 hours ahead of GMT (Greenwich Mean Time)