The aviation industry has been devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic but the demand for private flights has soared in recent months.
A report in The Sunday Times has revealed that global business trips have fallen by 96 percent but the world's wealthiest are still flying to and from the UK on private jets.
Global private jet company, PrivateFly, have noted an 85 percent increase in enquiries in June, compared with the same period last year and bookings at global air services group, Air Partner, went up by 210 percent in May in relation to the same month in 2019.
Business flights across the world have fallen by 96% but the demand for private jets has soared as the world's wealthy find new ways to fly to and from the UK. /AP
Luxury private jet agent, Volanteus, has also seen a rise in consumer demand and is preparing for an influx of bookings after lockdown as the aviation landscape begins to change.
Business director Mark Green told CGTN Europe: "The business has changed dramatically in the past four months. Everything we've been doing is repatriation for large organizations and companies that have vast workforces working away from home – oil fields, cruise companies, hotel chains, we've been getting those passengers home.
"Once we come through this, we expect to get an awful lot of new users to the private jet market," he added. "People who have used them in the past will continue to do so but a new wave of people, the new user, will do so as well."
Green expects the boom in private flights to continue for the next 18 months as people avoid commercial flights and companies try to protect the health of their workers.
"People have a good reason to fly privately – health reasons," he said. "They can go to their bosses or shareholders and say that flying privately will guarantee it will be safe and sanitized and they can control who will be on the plane. If they can afford it, they can't afford not to do it."
But private flights aren't cheap, so will an increase in demand send prices tumbling or will they remain a luxury for the rich and famous?
"The cost itself won't change," added Green. "What's more likely is, if, for example, you have a family of five who also know another family of five, they may bubble up with another family of five on a 13-seater flight and halve the cost."
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