Jetgala - FALL-WINTER 2022

52 W Photos courtesy of VistaJet C OVID-19 changed peoples’ mindset. “Rather than just think about the extra money involved in flying privately, they thought about the advantages of flying privately,” says Ian Moore, chief commercial officer of global private aviation companyVistaJet. He cited safety and security as what drove people to business aviation among other benefits. “The fact you only fly with people you have vetted, and that flying on a business jet involves very few ‘touch points’, as compared to flying commercially, were key reasons why people switched to business aviation.” Passengers fly with hundreds of people on a commercial aircraft.They are also exposed to thousands of other people when they go through a busy commercial airport. Commercial airlines have reduced their route network as a result of the pandemic; there are routes that no longer exist, no longer available commercially, or have only one flight per day. On top of this, some commercial aircrafts have no ‘first-class’ cabin. Re-EvaluatingTravel Last year, whenVistaJet’s new members fromAsia exceeded the 2019 total by 175 per cent, even Moore couldn’t hide his surprise. “We’re not a start-up,” he said with amazement. “We’ve been in Asia for 14 years where we’ve been gaining a lot of traction in the past five to seven years before the pandemic.” He pronounced the unprecedented growth “extraordinary”, underscoring the fact that it was achieved “when there were still international travel restrictions in Asia”.With international travel to mainland China and Hong Kong yet to normalize as of press time,VistaJet’s bullish position about the future is understandable. “Before the pandemic, McKinsey issued a report saying only 10 of people who could afford to fly on business jets, were doing so,” Moore pointed out. “That meant there was 90 per cent of the potential market that was missing.Then COVID-19 happened and those who were part of the 90 per cent started to re-evaluate how they travelled.”