There is nothing like a pandemic to highlight the advantages of flying private, but “flight shaming” looms large. As big companies and wealthy consumers look to keep flying without the stain of owning planes outright, “Uber-like” services like Wheels Up, VistaJet and Blade could reap the gains.
Business-jet traffic is now up a whopping 45% world-wide relative to the start of 2019, compared with a 24% drop in commercial traffic, according to tracker FlightAware, even though corporate travel hasn’t yet recovered. The demand has come from rich people—many of whom had never used a private plane—living in more remote locations and avoiding commercial airports for vacations, jet brokers say.
