With the coronavirus pandemic, celebrities are turning away from commercial flights and heading more and more towards private planes to get to where they need to go. HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with two executives from private plane companies who explained why A-listers and athletes are willing to drop tens of thousands of dollars to fly cross country in order to maintain social distancing and avoid the crowds amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
Anthony Tivnan, president and founder of Magellan Jets explained why business has been increasing in recent weeks. “We’ve seen a tremendous uptick really all around the business, whether it’s our customers that rely on us 365 days a year as normal, and then certainly an uptick in new customers who have obviously grown wary of flying with the commercial airlines and being in the bigger airports,” he said. “Also, the circumstances around why people are using private aviation. There’s a lot of moving of passengers who may be high risk, like elderly folks, obviously families traveling with infants or small children.”
Nevin J., Executive Charter Consultant at Air Charter Service agreed, saying: “Business has definitely increased since this outbreak and people are turning more and more to private planes at this point. The problem is that there are a limited number of private planes so they get booked very quickly. It’s definitely becoming much harder for clients to reserve a plane because people are turning to private charters much more than ever before. People are reserving them more often so they are less available. For those who have become accustomed to having a few days to decide whether or not they want to book a plane, they now may only have moments before someone else reserves that plane before them.”
To afford the luxury of their own private jet, these celebrities drop some serious dough! The cost for a flight across the U.S.? “I would say on average for Los Angeles to New York… It depends on the jet type, but you’re anywhere from $25,000 to $35,000 on a midsize to a super midsize jet,” according to Tivnan.
Nevin explained that prices have “not necessarily” gone up. However, “owners can choose who they wish to rent out the plane to and if one client is requesting a one-way flight and another wants a round-trip flight, the owner will choose the round-trip flight because they will make more money.”
