Turbulent times ahead for Hong Kong’s jet owners

Before the Covid-19 pandemic hit Hong Kong, at least 120-130 private jets would be parked outside a dedicated terminal at the city’s bustling international airport. But when Justin Yeung, strategy head at Hong Kong-based business jet operator Metrojet, went down there to do a count in February, he found just 30.

The pandemic has forced even the wealthiest in Asia’s biggest financial hub into some difficult decisions. “We’re talking [owners who are in] the Forbes top 50 and counting downwards,” says Yeung. “They might have homes in many parts of the world and there are aircraft based here which are flying around the EU and US.”

But, while some wealthy Hongkongers and mainland Chinese chose to fly their jets abroad, others decided to sell them. Border closures amid the world’s strictest lockdowns have weighed heavily on the region’s private and business travel market.

China’s pursuit of a Covid-zero strategy — including a quarantine requirement of several weeks — has upended travel plans for billionaires. Many have opted to base themselves, and their aircraft, in countries with laxer travel rules. Those affected by the restrictions, though, have found a ready market for their aircraft in the US. The administration of former president Donald Trump introduced a tax break allowing individuals to write off the cost of a jet against their federal taxes from September 2017.

Mainland China’s business jet fleet shrank slightly from 346 in 2020 to 340 last year, while Hong Kong’s fleet dropped more sharply, from 120 to 101, according to data from travel data provider Asia Sky Media.

“Private jet management on behalf of clients who own their own plane has been very badly affected — it’s a general trend across the industry in greater China,” says Yeung. “Because of the closed borders, people don’t want to fly or [if they are] they are flying [outside Hong Kong].”

Some owners had hoped for a relaxation of the restrictions, but China has only appeared more committed to its Covid-19 elimination strategy. The policy has resulted in strict lockdowns — one of which paralysed Shanghai in March — and tough restrictions in Hong Kong.

The quarantine periods, and the frequent suspensions of airline routes altogether if a flight brings in a certain number of Covid-positive patients, have been a nightmare for commercial airlines such as the city state’s de facto flag carrier Cathay Pacific.

In March, Cathay said that its crew had cumulatively spent more than 73,000 nights in quarantine hotels and government facilities last year. Hong Kong authorities also banned passenger flights from eight countries between January and April this year, reducing the number of incoming planes.

Simon Bambridge, commercial director at TAG Aviation, a private jet management and charter service, says airlines have had to find all sorts of innovative ways to comply with the rules while keeping jets in the air. In one case, he says, to avoid quarantine, crew were flown by helicopter from Hong Kong to staff a flight leaving from Macau, another Chinese territory nearby.

“There are all sorts of weird things we have had to do,” Bambridge says,…