The travel industry has been one of the hardest hit by the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. And as many businesses have employees working from home and have placed restrictions on travel, the private jet industry is also not immune.
Dallas-based private flight company JetSuite is the latest to be hit by the economic effects of the virus. The company announced on its website that it is entirely grounding its fleet, furloughing most of its crew members and closing its call center. While JetSuite was unable to be reached for comment, the Dallas Business Journal reports it has about 120 employees.
“For those of you who were scheduled to fly this week or in the weeks ahead, please accept our deepest apologies for this sudden, but unavoidable and necessary, cancellation of all flights until further notice,” the company wrote on its website.
JetSuite was founded in 2009 by one of JetBlue Airways’ founding executives, Alex Wilcox. JetBlue is also one of the company’s backers, along with Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, who invested $7 million into JetSuite in 2011. Originally founded in California, JetSuite moved its headquarters to Dallas in 2018.
JetSuite’s sister company JSX, which sells individual seats on regional jets, is still operating some of its scheduled flights, according to Aviation International News. However, it has also had to cut both flights and staff.
“The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting state of emergency around the country has caused an unforeseeable, dramatic downturn in the entire aviation industry and our business in particular,” the statement said.
The company had announced last year that it was looking to expand its fleet of jets. According to a March interview with travel website Skift, JetSuite had seen a spike in service at the onset of the coronavirus outbreak, as many of its affluent customers looked to avoid more public travel options. In the interview Wilcox said he believes the company will be able to weather the crises, adding that it’s the worst he’s seen since the days following 9/11, when air traffic was shut down.
“This thing is just insidiously frightening to everybody. The last thing anybody wants to do right now, unless they have to, is get on an airplane,” Wilcox told Skift.
