Amid squeeze on air travel, HNIs party on charter jets | Economic Times

International air travel had just resumed in the second half of last year when a wealthy couple from Mumbai in their late 40s decided that they had enough of sitting at home. They started scouting for a concierge service to help them holiday again, while keeping away from airports that were getting filled with travelers once more after the first wave.Like other business people and corporate executives, the couple was no stranger to private jets -- but those had usually been trips for work. After narrowing in on a plush Maldives resort, they chartered a six-seater that would ferry the two of them to Male. It wouldn’t be cheap — a charter of this size could cost Rs 5-15 lakh for a one-way trip. For the next six months, the couple spent one weekend every month on the sandy beaches of the Maldives. After that first trip, they invited friends and family along for subsequent jaunts. Then there’s the Mumbai-based diamond trader who went on a work trip to Dubai by a chartered flight. He took his wife and children along, extending the schedule by a week using the same plane. Charter companies have seen a boom in such leisure-trip business, given the constraints of post-pandemic commercial air travel.8472244484722448“Just before the second wave struck, we were doing multiple flights to Goa too. Many of those were from Mumbai with about six people on board at a cost of Rs 3.5 lakh per flight. One passenger would end up paying about Rs 60,000 per seat," said Sachit Wadhwa, cofounder of Bookmycharters, an online booking service run by Mumbai-based charter firm Baron Aviation. Regular clients are avoiding business trips, but Baron Aviation’s bookings up about 70% from pre-pandemic times. With international travel restricted to “bubble flights” and domestic schedules capped at 65% of capacity, many high net worth individuals (HNIs) are turning to the comfort of private flights scheduled at their own convenience to holiday locations in the Middle East, the Maldives and even further away.Demand Pick-up after DiwaliIn Mumbai, a large charter operator has been promoting a new addition to its fleet: a long-haul aircraft that can fly direct between India and locations in the US. The operator says there has been a big demand for large charter planes with more seats and better range. Skytrax Aviation managing director Hemal Modi expects long-haul charter demand will pick up after Diwali. Radhika Khanijo, who has been in the boutique travel business for about two decades, recently learnt that Emirates’ A319CJ — a 19-seater Airbus aircraft — had become available for people going from India to Dubai. With an increasing number of queries coming to her firm from the super rich, her company Welgrow Travels saw an opportunity. Khanijo now has two such charters a week. These are exclusive--each client buys all 19 seats, subject to UAE rules that only eight of them can be occupied. The fare works out to Rs 35-45 lakh one way, depending on the origin city in India. “I wasn't familiar with the charter market at all but it was the need of the hour. Since a lot of our clients are already first and business class passengers, it wasn't difficult to market this product to them,” she said. Welgrow Travels now puts together packages for luxury stays along with the charter bookings. Club One Air CEO Rajan Mehra said that his firm has also seen a shift from business to leisure travel, as well as from domestic to international charters. “In the last two months, we have shifted focus since there has been such an increase in demand for travel to international destinations such as Dubai, UK and Italy,” he said. In the last two months alone, Club One Air has booked close to 24 international charter flights.According to a 2018 report, India had 138 operational business jets, making it the third-largest market in the Asia-Pacific region. The demand for charter aircraft in India has been growing consistently, boosted by the more than 6,000 ultra high net worth individuals residing in the country, according to the Assessment of India’s Business Jets Market 2019.