NEW DELHI: After witnessing phenomenal growth during the Covid-19 period, India’s largest charter aircraft operator JetSetGo expects no shortage in demand for flying private. “This year India has imported 25 new charter aircraft and that’s the highest in any financial year so far. JetSetGo has added 7 more aircraft to its existing fleet in the last year and plans to add 4 more in the next 6 months.
This indicates how strong the market is growing at the moment,” said Kanika Tekriwal, CEO & Founder, JetSetGo Aviation. At present, JetSetGo, which counts Puneet Dalmia of Dalmia Group and former cricketer Yuvraj Singh as investors, has a fleet size of 28 aircrafts. She added, “We expect the private charter aircraft industry to see phenomenal growth in the next 3 to 5 years.”
According to Tekriwal, a large chunk of demand has been added and is expected to come from the first time users of charters. Considered as new money, these individuals are either start-up founders or made quick bucks from the stock market and willing to pay up to Rs 8 lakh per hour for this service. According to a recent wealth report, for the first time ever, over 1,007 individuals in the country have a net worth of Rs 1,000 crore.
“Now people don’t consider flying private as a waste of money. During the pandemic, they have realised its utility. Also, they are used to the luxury this service provides. Hence, it will be difficult for them to switch to commercial,” said Tekriwal, adding that the average age of passengers has reduced from 52 to 39 in the last one year.
Beside this, suspension of international flights and medical use made the charters the only go to choice. Says Tekriwal, “At present, only 30% international operations are going on. There are still many places where there is zero connectivity due to this suspension.” This, however, is likely to change as the government may resume regular international flights from March 2022.