The phone started ringing off the hook early Thursday at Swiss-based private jet company LunaJets, with desperate Americans willing to pay big bucks to get home on the other end of the line.
LunaJets said the company had been inundated with requests since 5 a.m. Thursday morning after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a 30-day travel ban on most of Europe.
Just hours after the World Health Organization classified the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic, Trump suspended travel from 26 European countries from traveling to the U.S. for a month as he responded to mounting pressure to take action against the spread of the COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus SARS-CoV-2.
“We had a 30% increase in the level of inquiries just yesterday alone. Today it’s been nonstop since Trump’s announcement,” said Eymeric Segard, CEO of LunaJets.
Private Jet companies in London and Europe are seeing a surge in demand as wealthy passengers, company executives, entertainers and sports teams, race to find ways to fly back to the U.S. before Trump’s ban kicks in at midnight on Friday.
Flying private from London to the North East of the U.S. would cost between $90,000-$120,000 for a Super Large Jet or Long Range Jet, seating 12 to 14 passengers.
Alain Leboursier, LunaJets head of sales, said he had already sold 30 contracts on Thursday, 11 of which were “Go-Nows” — a term used for people who want to travel instantly. “We have a plane flying to Austin in 15 minutes and one to Memphis tomorrow,” he told MarketWatch in a telephone interview.
And passengers are paying big bucks to get to their destinations. Flying private from London to the North East of the U.S. would cost between $90,000-$120,000 for a Super Large Jet or Long Range Jet, seating 12 to 14 passengers, according to LunaJets.
Leboursier said the company was filling out more forms and asking for more information from passengers and the crew. “The captain usually greets you and shakes your hand but when you board but he doesn’t do that anymore.”
Adam Twidell, CEO of London-based PrivateFly, the on-demand private jet charter provider, said he had seen a “significant number” of requests in the past few hours from Americans currently in Europe, looking to fly back to the U.S. — and other requests from U.S. citizens wanting to fly from other parts of Europe to the U.K., as it is currently exempt from the ban.
“Although this situation is unprecedented, as we have seen before in times of disruption, people do turn to private jet charter to fill the gap,” Twidell added.
He said majority of inquiries were from people “very concerned” to get their families back together as soon as possible, given how rapidly the situation is developing.
“One client is flying his daughter home to the U.S. from university in France, and several of her fellow students (who are also U.S. citizens), are sharing the flight back with her,” Twidell said.
PrivateFly said typical pricing from Paris to New York on a long range jet such as a Dassault Falcon 7X or a Bombardier Global would be in the region of $85,000-$95,000.
In Europe, it would cost in the region of $5,000-$6,000 in a small jet seating between four to six people for a short flight, such as Paris to London.
Airlines have canceled thousands of flights globally as they try to cope with a slump in passenger demand caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Emergency cost-cutting measures to protect profits include grounding flights, cutting routes and implementing hiring freezes. The International Air Transport Association has said the industry could take a hit of up to $113 billion from the disruption.
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