Aircraft charters for the entertainment industry really taking off

Leading aircraft charter specialist, Air Charter Service, says that the company has seen a significant change in the way the entertainment industry is using aircraft charters compared with pre-pandemic, with tighter schedules, along with the SAG-AFTRA writers’ strike, seen as key drivers.

Mario Nicholas, ACS’s Vice President of Business Development – Entertainment, commented: “We have seen a real shift in the way charters are used, compared to pre-pandemic. We are seeing a similar number of active productions, but they are utilising charters more frequently – in fact we’ve seen a 62% increase in passenger charters for entertainment clients so far this year compared to the first six months of 2019. They also appear to be choosing larger aircraft more often. We believe that production companies are seeing the real benefits of aircraft charters, especially with increased pressure on schedules. It makes sense to ensure every member of the crew is on the same flight, along with equipment in many cases, as opposed to arriving at different times on multiple scheduled airlines.

“We saw a real upswing directly after the SAG-AFTRA writers’ strike last year, which ended in early November. Projects that had been on hold, whether part way through production or that had been scheduled to start, needed to make up for the lost time of almost four months. And initially, we saw a lot of the studios themselves chartering as there were several delayed press tours to get through.

“The US remains our single largest market, with our Los Angeles office, naturally, seeing a lot of the business when it comes to charters for the film and TV industry, but our presence in Texas is seeing growth as well. The state is set for major expansion in the industry, with two film studio projects that have started construction in the Austin area and film incentives that are coming into force.

“The strongest growth, however, has come from our offices across the rest of the world, chartering aircraft for cast, crew and production equipment to various locations. There are the established industries, such as Bollywood, but we are also seeing companies from the growing Korean and Middle Eastern entertainment markets utilising charters more frequently.”