Few topics are as polarizing as private jets. The rich love them; the rest of us resent cleaning up their pollution. But during the pandemic, private jet, or “PJ,” travel became more palatable. Social distancing fueled a rise in semi-affordable options for solo and small-group flights, framed as safer alternatives to sardine-packed commercial planes.

Media outlets soon called semiprivate charter companies like Aero, JSX, and Tradewind Aviation the new rideshare services of the sky, a Goldilocks solution helping travelers skip the cattle call of airline terminals. Costs for semiprivate flights shrank to that of a business- or first-class ticket. Passengers bypassed crowded TSA lines and shuttled in concierge-driven golf carts to 30- or 13-seater planes right on the tarmac. Quickly, the narrative of semiprivate jets for all became … believable.

Until one day Set Jet, a 10-year-old semiprivate charter company with 2,800 members, folded without warning. On February 17, Set Jet announced it had disbanded its board and personnel, terminated customer-service support, and had no plans to refund members who’d booked flights. An NFT bro might have called this news a rug pull. Except Set Jet had been operational since 2014. It just couldn’t finalize its IPO or secure additional investor funding to stay afloat in 2024’s market, which has lost some of its interest in private-jet travel now that social distancing isn’t a selling point.

“It doesn’t take much,” said Gary Lightfoot, a pilot who flew Set Jet’s final flight on February 14. “All it takes is one or two investors pulling out.” 

Set Jet isn’t alone. The on-demand jet company Wheels Up last year announced it was looking for “strategic alternatives,” including bankruptcy, to address its working-capital deficit of $721 million. The company has stayed in business since the August 2023 announcement and even managed to slow losses. Still, it reported a revenue decrease of $162 million in Q1, citing “the divestiture of the Aircraft Management business” (they’d sold that business to Airshare). A month later, it consolidated maintenance facilities and halted operations at Denver’s regional Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport. 

On the more clever end of the “strategic alternative” spectrum, heli-taxi company Blade has been discreetly shoring up its business model with a behind-the-scenes organ-transport operation that now accounts for more than half of its reported $225 million revenue. This shift signals versatility for private-aviation companies, but it also suggests that offering essential services may be key to maintaining market demand when luxury alone doesn’t cut it.

Experiments in semiprivate air travel

Among the enduring Goldilocks airlines still in the race to profitability, one commonality seems to aid their survival, at least for now: they streamline costs, sticking to predetermined routes and upselling customized options at a hefty premium. For instance, the California-focused air-transportation company Surf Air offers pre-scheduled flights at $599 a seat for members who pay a required $295 monthly service fee. It also has on-demand flight options with a four- or five-figure price tag one way. Surf Air also appears to be taking a page from Blade’s playbook by diversifying revenue, announcing a deal in March to supply Tanzania-based regional air operator Auric Air with carbon-neutral electric powertrains. 

Despite these efforts, Surf Air was flagged by the New York Stock Exchange for noncompliance in April after its stock price had dipped below $1 for 30 straight trading days, and it remains well below a buck. The company went public in July 2023, but reported a $110 million loss for the fourth quarter of 2023.

The negative stigma of PJs

The biggest PR challenge for private jets is sustainability. Surf Air does its best to combat this problem by employing small electric aircraft and demonstrating how the rest of the travel industry could be addressing the climate crisis with low- or no- carbon technology. Still, the narrative of billionaires receiving massive tax write-offs to clog the air with carbon emissions is tough to ignore. Nobody wants to be compared to Kylie Jenner, who got dragged last year for taking a 17-minute flight in her $72 million Bombardier BD 700. 

Semiprivate air travel isn’t that opulent. It’s arguably practical. As one Redditor commented about their experience flying with JSX, a hop on, hop off jet service with affordable one-way fares for 30-seater planes: “The lounge is basic, planes are comfortable but not first class or anything. Drinks are free but they’re not top shelf liquors.” The appeal for that Reddit user was all about convenience: “I usually drive in 15 to 20 minutes before my flight,” they said. “The valet is only $35/day.” Plus, there’s no getting stuck at TSA. 

YOLO: Upselling the once-in-a-lifetime trip

One enduring effect of the pandemic has been a rise in trying to complete bucket-list items and spend money on experiences over things. National Geographic, for instance, now offers a 24-day private-jet package for $104,995 that takes passengers on an educational tour through 10 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Americans recently created an entire YOLO economy around the recent solar eclipse, which the airline industry quickly created packages for. JSX ran a promotional sweepstakes giving 30 people a free ride above the clouds on an Embraer 145. Virginia-based charter company Paramount Business Jets promoted similar private flights ranging from $2,000 to $14,000 per billable hour. On the commercial side, Delta promoted two special flights for eclipse chasers, and both sold out in a day. Cost for a one-way economy ticket? $749. 

For Noah Frere, a Knoxville, Tennessee-based astronomer and astrologer, the biggest luxury of his first private air-travel experience was having “the best point of visibility on earth” during the eclipse. Frere and his wife flew with pilot and Knoxville Flyers member Tom Cleland in a three-passenger Piper Dakota. The tiny propeller plane was not a luxury PJ, but it did provide meaningful convenience. 

Frere wanted to make sure the group had the flexibility to make a game-time decision that morning to adjust for the forecast — a luxury made possible only with private air travel. 

Renting the Piper Dakota through Cleland’s local flyers club cost $180 for each hour the engine ran. That’s a “wet rate,” meaning it includes fuel. All in all, Cleland says the eclipse trip ran about six hours, bringing the rental cost to $1,080. For three people splitting the bill — call it an old-school rideshare experience — that’s about $360 each, less than half the Delta flights. 

Undoubtedly, private travel of any kind remains a luxury, and companies are still figuring out how to make a semi-private-jet business run in the black. But there are signs of some possible flight paths forward, such as taking a page from Blade’s book and diversifying revenue streams or playing up the relative ease of semiprivate travel as commercial travel continues to grow in cost and friction. 

After all, haven’t we all imagined ourselves on a private jet, cocktail in hand, leaning back in leather seats as a friendly captain ascends skyward? Or is that my imagination flying too high?