The pandemic is changing private jet travel’s popularity

On JSX’s most recent maiden flight between Dallas and Austin, one traveler hoped to make the flight part of his weekly commute. Another group of passengers visited the country’s capital for a birthday outing to stay with friends.

On the way back to Dallas, several groups came to watch the Monday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles.

Even with 35 commercial flights a day between Austin and the two commercial airports in North Texas – DFW International Airport and Dallas Love Field – everyone on the 30-seat plane decided to skip the traditional airline experience, skip the security lines and the parking garage and skip the recommended two hours early arrival time.

Airlines

JSX private jet service is increasing flights from Dallas to Austin and Houston

Dallas-based private jet service JSX is launching the flight from Dallas Love Field to Austin and expanding service to Houston in hopes that business travelers will pay the premium to skip airport terminals. JSX will fly to Austin-Bergstrom International Airport on September 27th. with its 30-seat jets to Dallas Love Field twice a day. JSX will also double its service from Dallas Love Field to Houston Hobby Airport.

At Signature Flight Services, the private terminal that JSX uses while it is building its own in Dallas Love Field, customers can show up 30 minutes early and step straight onto the jet sitting outside on the taxiway.

“People got a taste for flying luxury during the pandemic and they don’t want to go back,” said Alex Wilcox, a former JetBlue executive who is now the CEO of JSX, based in Dallas, which has 30-seat flights Texas and the US runs California region. “It’s really the convenience because nobody wants the stress of the airport.”

While commercial aviation is still suffering from the COVID-19 downturn, the world of private and charter flights has never been so hot.

July was the busiest month in modern history for the business aviation category, a mix of business flights, private jets and charter services, according to data from business aviation data firm Argus International. There were 302,317 take-offs and landings among private business aviation operators in July, more than even 2019, which was a stellar year for the industry.

In Dallas Love Field, private and charter jet traffic was 16.5% higher in the first nine months of 2021 than in 2019.

A JSX jet flies over Bachman Lake as it prepares to land at Dallas Love Field.(Elias Valverde II / employee photographer)

The private aviation sector has recovered so quickly from the COVID-19 downturn that there is a shortage of planes to buy worldwide. NetJets and other major players in the private jet sales space are suspending sales because demand is too great.

What’s even more surprising, said Travis Kuhn, vice president of market intelligence at Argus, is that the rise in the business aviation sector is taking place amid a sharp decline in business aviation.

“Many companies have linked their return to office to Labor Day, but with the Delta variant it doesn’t look like 2022 at the earliest,” said Kuhn.

The private aviation world was sustained last summer by a wealthy class of avid travelers who were stuck at home for months and decided to rent private jets and turboprop aircraft for vacation to outdoor destinations and beaches. But there was also a flood of trade in these areas.

Overall, business aviation continued to decline in 2020, although both business and business travel recorded a significant recovery in early 2021.

The recovery in commercial aviation has not been without its hiccups. Airlines worked hard in 2020 to show that sitting in close proximity to other passengers does not pose an increased risk of contracting COVID-19. And that summer, airlines were fraught with weather delays and a record number of recalcitrant passenger complaints that sometimes resulted in planes being turned around and disembarking on taxiways.

Meanwhile, a booming stock market and the stability of high-paying white-collar jobs have resulted in significant wealth accumulation among the upper class.

“This record profit on the stock market has driven more people into private planes,” said Kuhn. “And once you see people rise, you won’t see them step back.”

Dallas is typically the country’s second or third largest market for business aviation, behind Teterboro Airport, just outside New York, and comparable to Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles. Dallas has maintained its position as one of the premier markets for business aviation as traffic has declined, Argus data shows.

But in any case, 2020 was just as tough a year for private airlines as it was for the rest of the aviation industry. Traffic fell by 20 to 30%, led by a massive halt in corporate air traffic. But personal and business aviation aggressively returned this spring, just as COVID-19 vaccines were being distributed to a large group of Americans and falling infection rates resulted in more areas of the country reopening.

JSX, formerly known as JetSuite, moved its headquarters from California to Dallas in 2018. In 2020 it launched a hybrid model.

It pulled seats from a jet that was normally intended for 65 passengers to accommodate only 30 passengers. Carrying 30 passengers also hits the limits set by the FAA for ticket sales on scheduled flights without being a full-fledged commercial airline like Southwest Airlines, also headquartered in Dallas.

JSX now flies direct from Dallas to Houston, Las Vegas and Austin, along with some charter flights to private resorts and golf courses. It also flies to a dozen or so locations in Southern California, Arizona, and Nevada.

The one-way route between Dallas and Austin starts at $ 129 during the initial promotional period and flights for later months between Dallas and Austin and Houston sell for $ 269. American Airlines flights to any of these destinations cost just $ 49 for the main cabin or about $ 250 for first class.

On the JSX Embraer 165 and 175 aircraft, passengers never need to sit next to another person.

Wilcox, who began his career at Southwest Airlines as a communications intern, said there was an experience like first class on a commercial flight.

“People value their time and convenience a lot more than they used to,” said Wilcox. “Nobody wants to spend the whole day at an airport in security lines and wait for a plane.”

The inside of a JSX jet at Dallas Love Field’s Signature Flight Support.(Elias Valverde II / employee photographer)

The company is in the process of renovating a former Gulfstream hangar in Dallas Love Field to give JSX its own permanent terminal with a hangar for its jets and a maintenance area, he said.

Other airports in the region are also seeing an increase in private air traffic.

At McKinney National Airport, one of the busiest airports in north Texas that does not conduct heavy trade or cargo traffic, kerosene sales have exceeded 2019 levels in three of the last four months, airport director Kenneth Carly said.

“In my opinion, you can see that a certain segment that was high-volume business class or first-class users are moving to charter,” said Carly. “It started with the pandemic, but now they are sticking with it.”

The Dallas-based Business Jet Center, which also has a base in Love Field, saw the largest increase in private and recreational aviation.

But this new demand is putting a strain on the industry.

“Demand for charter aircraft is almost outpacing supply of charter aircraft,” said Cat Wren, customer experience officer for Business Jet Center. “Customers book months in advance, as opposed to the more traditional lead time of a week or two.”

Operators have reported problems finding pilots, maintenance personnel, and other professionals necessary to maintain private and charter operations. Major airlines have had the same issues over the past few months, and Southwest Airlines and Fort Worth-based American are well on their way to hiring thousands of employees this year.

“There has just been this explosion in private aviation and it just won’t go back to what it was before the pandemic,” said Janine Iannarelli, Houston aeronautical consultant at Par Avion. “Why go back when you have to deal with everything that happens at the airport and with the airlines these days?”

Airlines

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