The wondrous world of private aviation was scheduled for some tough times ahead. Many adaptations had to be adopted in order to face the same challenges staring down the operations of commercial carriers. Yet, even through the pandemic, demand kept growing and this temporary change in parameters, led to a permanent increase in interest. As new and old clients approached this sector looking for solutions to their needs, investors lined up the orders for deliveries. 2023 saw one of the largest bulk orders in the history of private aviation, with NetJets signing up for delivery of up to 1,500 new jets from the Cessna Citation family.
These are scheduled to be delivered over the next 15 years, but beyond the headlines, many aspects will have to be reviewed more closely. For starters, a backlog of supply constraints has afflicted the whole industry since the production slowdown from the pandemic, and whether such a significant ramp up in production can be achieved remains to be seen. Regardless of what the final numbers will be, this agreement is testament to the confidence levels within the industry. The demand of the last few years has caused a consolidation of the available fleets within global markets and for new orders to be placed at astonight rates. Even in the last few days of December 2023, the Canadian manufacturer Bombardier, received a new request for a further 12 jets from their Challenger 3500 series.
What is driving this resurgence? The vast majority of companies within this sector have rather quickly, and proudly, returned to pre-pandemic business levels but some underlying factors have been driving their success.
The untenable levels of added stress experienced whilst flying commercial during the pandemic has caused a large part of first and business class flyers to become disaffected and start looking at alternatives within the world of private aviation, this has caused a significant rise in demand from a segment that historically had never considered private solutions for their flight needs, despite having the means for it.
As we welcome 2024, we can shed the veil of past predictions and we can now better appreciate the position this industry is in. As we analyse it for what it has achieved, we can see how it was able to quickly adjust and pivot several times in order to keep answering an ever growing interest from the market. Production bottlenecks and sky high demand have caused average costs to grow, but this hasn’t discouraged today’s travellers from looking into high end solutions for their needs.
This reflects a broader change that has affected not just the world of private aviation, but the whole leisure industry. A reduction in available options, coupled with a strong desire to limit stress, annoyances and potentially disruptive events has turned most clients to look for the finer things when they travel. In the same way that the rise in low cost aviation has created whole new industries, so the rise in high end aviation is now re-shaping the entire ecosystem. This new reality is now multiplying the investments in solutions aimed at offering custom trips via private providers aimed at prioritising comfort and ease. Whether it would be a private flight, a fully staffed villa, or a chartered yacht, one thing is for certain, a new generation of business ventures is coming forth to meet this demand that keeps showing signs of solid growth.
