Air Charter Service expects demand for team charter travel to spike during pre-season

With the return of two-legged Champions League and Europa League qualifiers, as well as international pre-season training camps and friendlies, Air Charter Service is expecting a busy summer surge in charter bookings for team travel following the European Championships. The main issue faced by the increasing number of clubs is that scheduled airlines are still expected to be operating fewer flights on fewer routes, which will mean aircraft charters will often be the only solution.

Alex Sadat Shafai, Air Charter Service’s Global Football Sales Director, commented: “Over the course of the past nine months or so, we have seen more and more sports teams turning to chartering aircraft - in large part due to the lack of scheduled service, but there is also the added benefit of being able to stay in their own bubble and avoiding the worst of the delays at larger airports, by flying to smaller regional airports and using private terminals.

“Obviously last summer Euro 2020 was postponed and there was no international sports travel for things such as pre-season training camps and friendlies. Qualifying for the Champions League and Europa League was limited to just one leg to cut down on international travel as much as possible. This summer, however, we are expecting a return to travelling abroad for pre-season training for some clubs, friendlies and, of course, the European trophies’ qualifying rounds which involve more than 50 teams. We’re in contact with many of these teams involved in tomorrow’s draws and expect to be securing aircraft for them this week. The potential of a team travelling from Iceland to Kazakhstan (and vice versa), for example, means that long flights, not served by scheduled airlines, will need to be chartered for most teams to get from match to match.

“We’re also seeing teams from less mainstream sports, that haven’t considered chartering aircraft before, coming to us for their international travel due to both concerns of COVID infection, as well as lack of scheduled flights and the delays expected at main airports.”

www.aircharterservice.com