The Superbowl saw the biggest surge in bizjets since 2018, with departures on the day after the event 5x higher than the average daily departures this month so far. This reflects a general buoyancy in the US market since November. In contrast the European market is subdued, particularly in the UK, with an alarming 20% drop in bizjet flights this week. There will also be concerns over the impact of new business jet taxes in France, the busiest European market. In the Middle East, where bizjet traffic year to date is up 77% since 2019, demand in Saudi Arabia should get a boost from GACA announcing an opening-up to foreign operators from March this year.
Global
Bizjet departures in Week 6 (3rd – 9th February) were up 2% ahead versus Week 6 2024, totalling 66,398 sectors, which compares to the last 52-week high of 76,527 flights, recorded in Week 26 last year. Half of this week´s activity was operated by aircraft on a commercial certificate, this activity trending further ahead, 3% up on last year. So far this year (1st January – 9th February), worldwide bizjet departures and flight hours are 3% ahead of last year. The global Turboprop fleet is flying 1% fewer flights this year than last year, 4% fewer than 2023.
Chart 1: YOY week-week view of global bizjet flights since Jan 2024
United States
As the NFL touched down at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans.for Super Bowl LIX, the bizjets closely followed. Airports in the New Orleans area (KMSY, KNEW, KHUM, KGAO, KNBG) saw a significant uplift of arrivals during the week of the Super Bowl. During the Friday – Sunday period, 611 bizjet arrivals were recorded at New Orleans airports, up from the 109 during the previous Friday-Sunday period at the same airports.
Fractional operators were busiest during the Super Bowl weekend, achieving a third of all arrivals into New Orleans airports. NetJets was the busiest fractional operator during the Super Bowl weekend with 160 arrivals during the weekend period, 73% of all fractional arrivals, Flexjet recording 43 arrivals. For comparison, Fractional operators recorded only 31% of market share of arrivals into Las Vegas airports during the 2024 Super Bowl event weekend. There were 100 biz jet arrivals from corporate flight departments during the weekend and a further 100 arrivals from branded charter operators. Almost all the weekend arrivals came in from other cities in the United States, with just 22 arrivals from countries outside of the US. There were 566 active individual bizjet aircraft active during the event weekend, 163 aircraft were parked at New Orleans airports 6 hours before kick-off.
Chart 2: Bizjet arrivals into New Orleans airports during Super Bowl weekend
On the Monday after the game, 577 bizjet departures were recorded from New Orleans metro area, 5x higher than the average daily departures so far this month. Glendale, Arizona retains the record for the highest number of bizjet departures the Monday following a Super Bowl, two years ago. The 2023 event also featuring the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs saw 931 bizjet departures on the Monday post-game, 5x higher than the average daily departures for February.
Chart 3: Business jet departures, 1 day after Super Bowl event compared to daily average in February 2006 – 2025.
Chart 4: Bizjets parked at New Orleans airports 6 hours prior to Super Bowl LIX kick off
Across the United States, bizjet activity in Week 6 was 3% ahead of last year, large increases in Florida (+11%), Texas and California departures 3% ahead of last year. Florida’s uptake in activity was clearly influenced by outbound traffic to the Super Bowl, 123 connecting flights this week from Florida to New Orleans, up from 44 in the previous week.
The ski season is also drawing bizjet traffic. For example, there have been 7,113 bizjet arrivals into the 4 main airports serving ski resorts in Colorado since December 2024, which compares to 2,544 during the off-season period of October and November 2024.
Chart 5: Airports serving key Ski resorts in Colorado, bizjet arrivals December 1st – February 9th 2025.
Europe
In Europe, business jet departures in Week 6 fell 8% compared to last year. There were significant declines across all major markets, the UK seeing the largest drop, bizjet departures falling 21% compared to the same period last year. The drop-off came almost all from corporate, private and management companies, with commercial operators seeing only 4% decline (although 9% down in the last 4 weeks). The busiest aircraft registry in the UK this month is Portugal (CS), whilst flights on the UK register (G) have fallen 14% year on year. So far this year (1st January – 9th February), the active number of bizjets on the UK registry is 12% lower than last year and almost 50% lower than back in 2019. In contrast, bizjets flying on the ‘2’ Guernsey register are up 57% compared to comparable 2019
Chart 6: Active business jets by register 1st January – 9th February 2025 vs previous years
Potentially significant new tax rates on business aviation flights in France were reported this week. The taxes are due to come into effect on March 1st. In 2024, France was Europe’s busiest bizjet market in terms of departures, with 4,786 recorded active bizjets operating in and out of 151 airports. In 2024, just under a third of departures were on domestic flights within France, Paris-Nice the busiest domestic route. Last year, there were 47,159 charter flights (AOC) flown from France, 26% of these were domestic, the flights expected to be the most impacted by the new tax rises.
Rest of World
In Week 6, bizjet flights departing airports outside North America and Europe comprised 13% of the global traffic and were overall 2% ahead of last year.
Bizjet departures from airports in the Middle East fell 2% below W6 last year but are up 1% so far this year compared to last year. On March 1st, the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) of Saudi Arabia is opening the domestic private aviation market to international operators. Last year, 47% of business jet departures flown from airports in Saudi were domestic flights, with Jeddah – Riyadh the busiest pair.
Over the last 4 weeks, bizjet traffic in Africa, South America and Asia trended (respectively) at +3%, +7% and -2% compared to last year.
Chart 7: Top Rest of World departure airports, bizjets January 1st – February 9th 2025.
