Today Wealth-X and VistaJet have released the first customer-centric analysis on the private aviation industry. The Jet Traveler Report: The Global Perspective on Who Flies Privately and How provides unique insight into the profiles of private fliers around the globe, how they fly and what is most important to them.
Private aviation is growing. But the global UHNW population and the world’s fleet are not rising at the same rate, highlighting that not everyone who flies privately on a regular basis owns a plane. Most of the growth comes from an increase in other flying solutions, including membership programs, fractional ownership and on-demand chartering, allowing individuals access to a fleet of private jets at their convenience.
Wealth-X leveraged its international database of dossiers on UHNW individuals (with a net worth of $30 million or greater) to profile passengers using different methods to fly. The voice of the flier has been brought to life in the report through in-depth interviews with experts, to discover how they travel and why.
To compare the different types of fliers, The Jet Traveler Report classifies the UHNW travelers into three groups:
• Owners: Owning an aircraft, or part thereof;
• Members: Members of a private flying program;
• The wider UHNW audience: Those who use a variety of methods to fly, including private chartering and commercial airlines.
“By identifying who these individuals are and understanding how and why they fly, we gain a clear understanding of the choices facing them and the typologies that exist in the market,” said Winston Chesterfield, Director, Wealth-X Custom Research. “It doesn’t always come down to a simple matter of personal wealth – in fact, many owners are also members of private flying programs. It is common for the ultra-wealthy to use more than one way of flying, depending on their needs.”
As business leaders and the UHNW population are presented with a vast array of options, VistaJet and Wealth-X have identified five key factors that influence how they choose to fly:
1. Maximizing time
2. Control
3. Perceptions of safety
4. Mitigating risk
5. Perceived value
Each flying solution has subsequently been objectively assessed against these requirements, to create an index that provides a streamlined approach to compare flying options from the customer’s perspective.
Key findings of the report include:
• The average wealth of Owners and Members is not dissimilar, at $1.5 billion and $1.16 billion respectively – as some value a higher level of flexibility with access to an entire fleet rather than purchasing a single aircraft;
• A widespread move away from full or fractional ownership – as aircraft depreciation is expected to remain high for most aircraft models, the value is placed more on flying requirements rather than assets acquisition;
• Increasing demand for longer trips and larger cabins – 85% of new business jet expenditure in the next five years anticipated to be for these sizes of aircraft;
• A rise of a younger generation of customers, in all regions – their new approach to how they access services will continue to push innovation within the industry.
