Private jet demand takes off in Russia as super-rich bypass Covid-19 restrictions, some pleading medical needs
- Super-rich Russians are still travelling overseas, skirting virus restrictions by flying privately
- Private flights from Moscow doubled in six weeks – helicopter charters have also increased
For many high-flying Russians used to spending summer holidays at Mediterranean resorts or in London penthouses, coronavirus restrictions that closed borders and grounded flights have made international travel a distant dream.
Yet Russia’s super-rich who hold second passports or residence permits abroad have discovered an elegant way of bypassing antivirus measures to reach second homes in London, Cyprus, Monaco or Nice: private jets.
Privately operated flights from Moscow’s airports more than doubled between April and mid-June, the RBK business news portal reported in late June, citing sources at two of Moscow’s airports. Soaring from 400 to 850 per month, a majority of the flights were bound for overseas, RBK reported.
For unlucky Russians who do not own a jet, a handful of companies that rent planes also offer to cut through the red tape of getting permission to fly from the nation’s aviation authority, Rosaviatsia.