Air Charter Service (ACS) said ongoing geopolitical tensions have created the most uncertain global environment since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2019.

The aircraft charter specialist made the comment as it reported a buoyant first financial quarter of the year, especially on the private jets side of the business, which saw revenue increase by almost 20%, compared to the same period last year.

Chris Leach, founder and chairman of Air Charter Service (ACS), said the company is pleased with its overall performance so far this year, noting a 19.2% revenue increase in its private jet division.

"We are delighted with performance across the board at this stage of the year [our financial year starts on February 1], but particularly happy with private jets, which saw a significant increase in revenue, up by 19.2%," Leach said.

The ACS chief noted that the air charter provider was able to acquire a number of low value, high volume contracts, with multiple daily flights on different continents — massively inflating total private jet charter numbers, making them incomparable to the same period last year.

"However, if you take these contracts out, our underlying flight numbers have still increased by 13.3%, which is particularly pleasing when compared to the industry average, which only saw small growth over the first quarter of the year," he said.

Looking ahead, Leach said forecasting remains difficult as market conditions continue to evolve.

"With regards to the rest of the year, we are probably in the most uncertain period since Covid, and it is impossible to foresee the impact of various geo-political situations in the world on the charter market," he said.

"However, with our global footprint, diverse businesses and portfolio of clients we are as well-placed as any company to deal with any fallout they may cause."

Meanwhile, the ACS chief noted that while private jets saw the strongest growth during the perod, the company's other divisions of cargo and group charter also had healthy increases in revenue, leaving the group up 8%, to US$280 million, on February-April 2024.