Air Charter Service sees return to aircraft charters in the MICE sector

Leading aircraft charter specialist, Air Charter Service, has noticed a marked increase in charters for the Events industry and says that it is almost back to pre-pandemic levels.

Commercial Jets Director at ACS, Matthew Purton, commented: “Last year saw a real return to the sort of levels for MICE we were seeing in 2018 and 2019. During 2020 and 2021 the market completely changed, with events charters replaced with more unusual requests, including flying farm workers across the US and Europe. In 2022 we saw the market shift back to what were the normal proportions.

“There were trends throughout last year, with many US and Canadian clients chartering trips to the Caribbean in the late spring and early summer. In Europe Croatia and the Greek Islands proved the hotspots for MICE earlier in 2023. We also saw a number of flights taking people to go to Africa on safari, particularly trips for the finance industry, on aircraft ranging from 20 to 100 passengers.

“A new event, whose popularity took us a little by surprise, was the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix, for which we saw a number of incentive trips over the course of the weekend. This winter we have seen huge amounts of interest in charters, with trips to Lapland before Christmas, and Scandinavia in general, proving hugely popular – many of them hoping to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights.

“Our outlook for this year looks bright – we are especially looking towards several high profile sporting events that will prove a big draw for MICE-related charters.”