One flight saw a group of 12 people and their dog fly from Muscat to Istanbul, Turkey, a five-hour journey, for $145,000.

The same flight would have cost around $60,000 before the conflict, said Vorster, equivalent to a 142% increase.

Muscat and Riyadh were the preferred departure airports at the start of the conflict as the airspace and flight corridors were more predictable, although Dubai has since become more popular as the emirate is home to many people who are trying to leave the region, Vorster explained.

“Istanbul has been the most popular destination because of its proximity to the region,” said Vorster, with other destinations including Athens and Mumbai.

However, private charters will not be able to significantly reduce travel disruption in the Middle East, both because of the unaffordable costs and due to a lack of capacity.

“Private charter cannot replace the scale of commercial airline networks, but it can provide controlled mobility for organisations and groups that need to move quickly when scheduled services become disrupted,” said Matthews, who added that AirX had secured a charter worth around 1 million euros ($1.16 million) for a plane with 100 lie-flat seats last week.

Vorster also acknowledged that the impact of private charters on the wider crisis would be limited due to low passenger numbers.

“The average private jet takes 12 people, and while the available aircraft in the region remains around 40-50 jets, the numbers (of people traveling) are relatively low,” said Vorster, who added that around 120 people have left the Middle East on flights arranged by the company in the past week.

There are currently tens of thousands of people trying to leave the region, and various governments from around the world are working to provide repatriation flights after commercial airline operations were severely disrupted by the conflict.

On Monday, the US State Department said it had facilitated more than two dozen charter flights and evacuated thousands of Americans from the region, with a senior official adding that “commercial flight availability across the region continues to improve.” (CNN)

Update news