The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 2 plus 1 plus 6 plus 5 letter word ON A HIGHER PLANE
I've seen this crossword clue in Financial Times
O
N
A
H
I
G
H
E
R
P
L
A
N
E
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Flying in more rarefied air" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case flying in more rarefied air = on a higher plane.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.