Bye-bye boarding lines.
The sharing of posh private jets among travelers has soared to record heights in the US as many residents are getting wealthier and turning up their noses at commercial flying.
While owning a plane is still impractical for many flyers — with prices for a new small jet starting around $14 million — an increasing number are willing to dish out a smaller fortune for a seat aboard a private or at least semi-private aircraft.
The extra cost can end up treating the lucky deep-pocketed travelers to such luxurious goodies as heated floors, walls with silk-blended fabric and circadian-rhythm-based lighting to help them cope with jet lag, according to a Wall Street Journal report Monday.
Jamie Walker, chairman of Jet Linx, described his private-plane-sharing business as a way for the semi-elite to more easily connect and travel in comfort.
“I don’t want to call it a dating app, but it’s a little like doing some matchmaking,” he told the outlet.
Nearly 300,000 private flights in the US took off monthly between January and June of this year — a sharp increase of 15.9% from the same six-month period in 2019, the outlet said, citing data from aviation services company Argus Traqpak.
At least part of the phenomenon stems from the fact that more than 430,000 households in the country are now each worth upwards of $30 million, increasing the demand for luxurious and private services such as people wanting to avoid the indignities of flying with the masses.
Both new and established private jet-travel companies such as Jet Linx are starting to offer special services from fractional jet ownership to jet-pooling, as well as booking sections of private terminals at major airports to provide white-glove service.
Across the board, the cost of even regular airline travel has skyrocketed in the past year, with the price of flights taking off from Big Apple airports to Los Angeles breaking records.
Air trips from New York City’s John F. Kennedy Airport to Los Angeles International Airport have soared an average 21% in price since last year, according to data from flight search-engine platform Skiplagged and obtained by the New York Times.
Across the river in New Jersey, the cost of flights from Newark Liberty International Airport to LAX have jumped a whopping 77%.
The average cost of a first-class ticket from New York to Los Angeles for the first five months of this year was just under $1,000, which doesn’t include taxes and fees, according to aviation analytics company Cirium.
Meanwhile, as prices vary, averaging at $1,000 per hour of flight time, Aero semi-private charter flights typically range around $6,456 per seat for a New York to Los Angeles flight, according to online data, a steep difference to paying $1,000 on a business class flight on the same route.
Other companies such as Jet Linx and Revaire offer a members club that splits private flights between other customers travelling on similar routes, with routes starting at $4,000. In at least Revaire’s case, that does not include a onetime sign-up fee of $2,500.