While most of the citizens of Houston, Texas deals with the Coronavirus pandemic by buying toilet papers that they can stock up in their homes, the wealthy are jet-setting using private planes and some are even opting for plastic surgery.
Commercial airlines such as United and American are canceling some of their domestic and international services as a response to the economic impact of drastically decreasing sales. However, the case is different when it comes to private aviation.
Kinston-based company flyExclusive, has recorded a 20 percent year-over-year increase in flight requests, including Houston. Notably, flyExclusive is the nation’s seventh-largest charter company. According to Allen Thomas, the company’s executive vice president, the increase in flight requests has been so apparent in the past couple of weeks that they needed to add more personnel to handle the number of inquiries and trip planning.
While there are cancellations, the number of new bookings is twice as many as the number of flights being canceled.
The Explanation
Thomas noted, “People are still going where they need to go. It is just a matter of their resources.” flyExclusive’s vice president also mentioned that his clients are both families and 0corporate travelers who are looking for a way to limit possible exposure to the virus. He said that his clients feel that a private plane is what they see as a common-sense solution.
Businesses see flying privately as a strategic solution. These businesses, according to Thomas, are repositioning their employees within the company to create separate work teams in various parts of the region for redundancy.
Most of the outbound flights from Houston are heading to Florida, New York, Chicago, and the West Coast. The most requested plane is the Citation Excel midsize jet which can accommodate up to eight passengers.
You may be wondering how much a charter flight is. From Houston to New York, the payment would be between $15,000 to $25,000 for a one-way trip.
Pay and You’re Ok
With the payment that could cost an arm and a leg comes several special requests coming from the customers. These requests include allowing them to travel with pets as well as disinfecting measures. According to Thomas, they are following the guidelines from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention when disinfecting the aircraft.
Thomas said that they have reached out to flyExclusive’s contemporaries in Europe and Asia for guidance. He also said that since Europe and Asia are ahead of Houston on the curve, they can learn about how to stage resources as well as from the logistics of the two. He further added that reaching out to their contemporaries helped them remodel their operation based on their contemporaries’ logistics.
Furthermore, the vice president of flyExclusive does not see any reason for the business to slow down. He said that there remains a significant amount of individuals traveling privately by air going to Europe and Asia since people still have to handle priorities and businesses.
But contrary to Thomas, the vice chairman of Houston’s Million Air airport Ali Davoudi envisions a possible decrease in the number of people who are needing private planes. He also said that while the private air market is soaring, the demand could also decrease if people are sequestered.
Davoudi emphasized that private aviation is an excellent substitute for commercial flights. He said, “People that don’t own planes but want to fly are paying to lease a flight and companies that are telling their employees not to travel are still sending their top executives.”
In addition, wealthy in Houston, Texas is not only traveling by air, but they are also isolating themselves at home, similar to what the rest of Houston is doing.
Private chef Charles Clark, the owner of Clark Cooper Concepts said that he saw a difference in light of the pandemic. Clark usually does seven to 10 private dinners per year. But last week, he did four.
Recently, Clark was hired by a client to travel with him since he did not want to dine out due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He flew with his client on a private jet going to Miami and Atlanta and said that his client brought him to his travel out of concern about the spread of the virus.
In Braselton, Ga., a place 50 miles away from Atlanta, Clark prepared his client’s meals at Chateau Elan Winery & Resort. He cooked not only for his client but also for his client’s whole office team at a private dining facility. His client informed the hotel staff that he has his personal chef with him and the staff had no problem with that.
The Expectation
Clark is not expecting for the demand to decrease since people are choosing chefs that they know and trust because they do not want to dine into restaurants. Clark further mentioned that he can see several people changing their habits.
According to the private chef, there is a change in the pulse of people in Houston and he feels that he would be even busier as people do more meals at home amid the pandemic.
For most people, the extended home quarantine means watching Netflix while they cannot go to their schools and work. But for the more privileged individuals, the quarantine is a time to recover from plastic surgery.
The business is booming for Utopia Plastic Surgery & Med Spa’s Dr. Franklin Rose. They are fully-booked of privileged individuals who are using the quarantine to get their plastic surgeries done.
The Bellaire is an area hospital where Dr. Rose caters to orthopedic and plastic surgery. Therefore, his patients are not lying on hospital beds due to illnesses.
Dr. Rose’s patients are not holding back when it comes to selecting procedures. .He has done breast augmentations, liposuction, and other procedures.
The quarantine gave his clients a reason to stay at home for post-surgery recovery without having to hide their bandages and bruising.
Furthermore, Dr. Rose said, “If they are going the social distance, why not have a procedure done and then lay low and recover at home? They go hand in hand.”
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