As the airline industry goes through the biggest crisis in its history - global traffic fell by 60% in 2020 - a part of aviation is an exception: private flights, also known as business flights, although some of their journeys are intended for leisure.
Even at the height of confinement, these comfortable little planes with a few seats - 4,600 are in circulation around the world - have never stopped flying.
They even won over new customers.
According to the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA), the number of leased business jets increased by 20% in 2020 compared to the previous year.
Private aviation, which represented 6% of the aviation market on a European scale in 2019, even reached 17% of total traffic in July 2020. During the first containment, when almost all the planes were nailed down on the tarmacs, Le Bourget on certain days had twice as many flights as Roissy-Charles de Gaulle.
90,000 euros for a Paris-New York
“The golden age of business aviation has started in recent weeks and I am living it! enthuses Simon Rochefort, vice-president of VistaJet, the European leader in the private medium and large-capacity aircraft segment. Never seen. In a world as cloistered as that of 2020, this is pure and hard growth. "If the Swiss company of 1,200 employees and 72 devices, headquartered in Malta, refuses to deliver its turnover, it claims to have signed" 29% of additional customers in 2020 "its contracts, which include a minimum of 50 flying hours per year. “A good number of these customers were European and a large majority chose flights from or to France. The more time passes, the more the country attracts business travelers, ”says Simon Rochefort.
With VistaJet, a Paris-New York flight costs 90,000 euros for the full plane, ie 14 passengers, a Paris-Nice between 10,000 and 15,000 euros.
The vice-president of the private company is convinced that these new users come from business and the first classes of commercial aviation.
"The main interest of private aviation is to reduce connection time and make logistics as simple as possible but with the Covid, so many connections have disappeared that business leaders were in a delicate situation," points out. he does.
“Luxury and low-cost are the categories that earn the most,” explains Xavier Tytelman, aeronautical consultant at Starburst Accelerator.
It is estimated that the margin in private aviation is, as for low-cost, between 15 and 20%, where a historical company oscillates between 0 and 5%.
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On the road to relative democratization
The specialist is also convinced that a bright future is emerging for business jets.
“First, with the crisis, the connectivity of secondary airports has fallen by 25%.
Before, a Bordeaux-Nice or a Brest-Toulouse was operated as a direct flight, but with the Covid, commercial companies are focusing on stop-over flights that they have less trouble filling, points out Xavier Tytelman.
Then, for health reasons, some travelers do not want to mix with 49 different nationalities during checks and in an airliner.
Finally, prices are falling, thanks to electrification and pooling of fleets.
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If the Covid has encouraged the growth of the sector, the private jet had already embarked before the health crisis on the path of relative democratization with new business models inspired by the shared economy. Created in 2016, the Excell'Jets company is thus an airline “broker”. It sells private jets' empty flights at cut prices. Today, around 40% of flights are made without passengers in order to reposition the devices on their base.
“We get a 50% reduction, or even more, on this return,” explains François-Xavier Bogillot, the founder of Excell'Jets.
The prices are not ridiculous but they are becoming much more affordable: 2,500 euros for a Paris-Nice, 25,000 to 30,000 euros for a Paris-New-York.
If you fill all 14 seats, it is cheaper than business class tickets at Air France.
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Other examples put forward, a Lyon-Ibiza flight at 7,790 euros for two passengers or a Toulouse-Lyon for five at 4,160 euros.
"In 2020, despite the Covid, our activity exploded with + 50% in volume of flights and almost as much in value", welcomes the young Toulousain, who also wishes to keep secret the turnover generated by his 1,200 flights. per year.
"In 2020, our activity exploded by 50%"
With 10,000 movements in 2020, the Astonsky terminal (Clair Group) alone represents 40% of the activity of Le Bourget airport, the largest in Europe in business aviation with 180,000 passengers per year. “I have never had so many requests for quotations, observes its president and founder Charles Clair. Hundreds of people contact us every day to find out how much a flight costs, but less than 1% of them sign contracts. "
The 39-year-old entrepreneur, also at the head of the company Astonjet, which he created, prefers to remain cautious in comparison with the resolutely optimistic speeches of his competitors in search of capital. After a year 2020 with 30% fewer movements (2,500 flights, 6,000 passengers and 400 units transported), Astonjet is recording excellent reservation rates for this summer, already equivalent to those of 2019.
"But the Covid has not transformed our activity as it could have been the case for the drive in stores or the video for work appointments, tempers Charles Clair.
I think our market will go back to the numbers of the past.
The Covid will have saved us a few additional business users, but we have also lost some.
The corporate world has learned to work with modern means.
It will move in a more targeted and pragmatic way.
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ZOOM… private jets in a few figures
One in ten flights
from France was carried out by private jets in 2019.
More than $ 5 billion in
turnover each year in France before Covid (13% of the overall turnover of the French aeronautics sector).
With 150,000 movements
of private planes in 2019, France is number one in Europe, just ahead of Germany and the United Kingdom.
800,000
private jet
flights
recorded in Europe in 2019 against 15 million commercial flights.
