Not surprisingly in a time of more crowded passenger planes and increasingly complicated security, private charter jets are taking off, observers say.
A Zogby International poll recently released found that 42 percent of likely voters said that enhanced pat-down search techniques and the increased use of full-body scanners by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) would cause them to use a different mode of transportation.
Demand for charter jets is up 52 percent so far in November over the same period last year, said
Joe Leader, president of the Air Taxi-Air Charter Assn., a trade group for charter jet companies.
"The majority of that can be credited to an increase in business travel and economic recovery, but the TSA security hassle factor has absolutely had an additive effect on air taxi and air charter demand," he told the LA Times.
With the economy beginning to recover, business travelers and vacationers who stayed close to home during the depths of the recession have begun to fly again. At the same time, however, airlines have resisted adding planes to accommodate the growth, the newspaper said.
As a result, airlines are packing their cabins as close to capacity as possible. In August, the nation’s airlines flew at 85.3 percent of capacity, the highest percentage for any August ever, according to the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics.
By David Wilkening
