New PrivateFly report reveals very different charter customer demands in Q1 2020

Adam Twidell

23 April 2020 – On-demand private charter provider PrivateFly, a Directional Aviation company, has released its latest Private Jet Charter Trends report, reflecting the first quarter of 2020, as the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic brought in new and unprecedented challenges for the global private charter industry.

PrivateFly Q1 2020 report

PrivateFly’s CEO Adam Twidell comments: “With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting all our lives so profoundly in almost every respect, our Private Jet Charter Trends report for Q1 reflects a very different set of requirements and behaviours from our clients, compared to our usual findings.”

These are some of the findings from the Q1 2020 report:

Increased demand for transcontinental, long haul evacuations and repatriations saw long range and super midsize aircraft performing 34% of PrivateFly’s flights (versus 18% in Q1).

With clients in a hurry to navigate impending lockdowns or travel restrictions, lead times got shorter. 60% of flights were booked to fly within a week, and 23% the same or next day (versus 15% last year).

Tuesday, March 17 was the company’s busiest day for take-offs in the quarter, as global repatriation flight demand peaked.

New York City remained PrivateFly’s top global destination, with London number one in Europe. But the company experienced a more diverse destination list overall, undertaking repatriation flights to many different parts of the world.

Adam Twidell continues: “By mid-February and throughout March, we moved into primarily arranging different types of flights: Many more evacuations and repatriations, many of which were long range – rather than business or leisure trips.

“This first quarter was very busy for us, with flight activity in March exceeding the previous year by some margin – and enquiries exceptionally high. But the weeks and months ahead are set to be a challenging time for us, along with the whole industry.”