Private Aviation Company Blade Is Offering Stranded Coronavirus Travelers a Way Home
At midnight on Monday, sweeping travel restrictions took hold across American airports to slow the spread of the Coronavirus. They prevent foreigners from at least 26 countries, including Ireland and the United Kingdom, from entering the United States. Domestic travel is unrestricted at the moment, but the Trump administration has said that may change soon to curb travel from cities with a high number of cases.
Americans abroad can still travel to return home, but airlines have cut back on international flights. As of Monday, Norwegian temporarily laid off 90% of its staff, American Airlines is reducing many of its international routes (New York, Chicago and L.A. to London and Sydney are among the cities affected) until May, Delta is operating one flight daily from Atlanta to Amsterdam, London, and Paris, and direct flights between smaller hubs and major destinations (Austin to London, for instance) are cancelled. (Americans in high-risk countries are requited to fly back to the U.S. through one of 13 airports.)
One company that stepped up to make its fleet of long-haul chartered jets available to those stuck overseas is Blade. It will do so by tapping into its large network of operator flights and keeping costs down, relatively speaking, by not taking a profit asking the operators not to as well, and, following the Blade model, crowdsourcing seats.
That's not to say that this is necessarily a bargain—these are still chartered jets and prices depend on a variety of factors, like whether the seats on the plane have been filled by other passengers or whether the plane is already at the departure destination or needs to be flown over from the U.S. to pick people up. If the circumstances are right, prices could be about the same as a first-class commercial ticket.
"While private jet travel is significantly more expensive than airline seats, it creates the ability to fly between locations that have seen commercial service discontinued due to the Covid-19 pandemic," says Will Heyburn, Blade's head of corporate development and business processes.
While this is one way to avoid seven-hour customs lines at major airports in the U.S.—and the immense crowds stranded there—it does not exempt travelers from screenings at entry points, or the quarantine requirements that might be in place there. Travelers will still have to comply with all restrictions, but without the added stress of large crowds, long wait times, or suddenly-cancelled commercial flights.
For information, contact Blade at flyhome@flyblade.com and the company will attempt to coordinate a flight home for you on a shared private jet from an international location back to the U.S.
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