Buisness aviation news

Geopolitical tensions are visibly impinging on bizjet demand, with flights in the Middle East dropping off 20% in Week 15. The European market has idled this year, stagnating around the same levels of demand 5 years ago. The US market is still growing, especially for the top operators. Bizjet visitors to airports hosting the Masters golf tournament were up by 15% compared to last year’s event.

At the start of April (1st – 7th), global bizjet sectors are 2% ahead of comparable last year, trailing 2022 by 4%, 37% ahead of 5 years ago. Over the same period, scheduled airline activity is 24% ahead year-on-year, 12% ahead of 2019. Dedicated cargo sectors start this month are 3% ahead of last year, 18% ahead of 2019.

Overall flight volumes are so far very similar to last year, but with considerable variance by region and operator type, with demand in Europe clearly ebbing, the US flat overall but at record highs in New Jersey, fractional operations powering ahead.

Business aviation activity is robust everywhere but Europe in March 2024. The core US market is normally busiest this time of year, and is slightly stronger than March last year when demand was affected by the regional banking crisis, but still some way off the peak in the post-Covid market back in March 2022.

Spring Break in the US has seen the usual surge in bizav in Florida, notably. Compared to same March period in 2019, Florida bizjet departures are up 56%.

Year on year, the latest week saw strong growth, keeping 2024 a little ahead of 2023. The US is providing the ballast, with strong growth in South America and Asia, offsetting a slide in European demand.

Globally, bizjet flights were up 1% last week, slightly ahead of the flat last 4-week trend, a considerable improvement on the relatively weak demand in January. The US market is holding up, Europe is dipping compared to last year, the Middle East also, whereas bizjet demand in South America and Asia is well up on last year.

Global bizjet trends are flat over the last 4 weeks, recovering from the dip at the start of the year. The most recent week showed a 3% increase in the US, with Part 135 activity out of Florida up 11%, but Canada continues to see steep declines. Europe is flat, extending a 3% decline over the last month.

Holiday bizjet traffic during Presidents´ Day shows demand is still quite robust in the US, only 2% below last year´s high point. Bizjet traffic in Europe is slumping, down 10% in week 7, deteriorating on the 5% decline in the last 4 weeks. Demand in Germany is wilting, but still high levels of traffic in Spain. Bizjet activity in the Middle East is down. Australia is still a growth market.

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) released the 2023 General Aviation Aircraft Shipments and Billings Report during its annual State of the Industry Press Conference. Overall, when compared to 2022, all aircraft segments saw increases in shipments and preliminary aircraft deliveries were valued at $27.8 billion, an increase of 3.6%.

Business jet activity was stronger this week than last, picked up 4%, with particularly big increase in the UK, flights up 26%; this may indicate the peak ski season around school break. Business jet activity in South America is hitting peak levels. In Turkey, activity is a lot lower than the high demand last year, during the earthquake. The Middle East is seeing substantially lower demand year on year. The overall market is only modestly behind 2023, due to the stability in the US market, where Texas and Florida still have strong demand.

To help our members predict the trends that will shape the year to come, we’re keen to learn from the past. Our network of nearly 2000 operators and brokers globally is maybe the most extensive source of behavioral data available in air charter. Harry Clarke continues the tradition of summing up the yearly trends we see in our extensive Avinode data.

Business jet activity ticked up this week compared to last week, as the US market emerged from the winter storms. So far this year, US bizjet is trending down 6% compared to January 2023, but is still tracking well up on pre-pandemic January 2019. Europe is a different case, with several countries seeing less traffic this January than in January 5 years ago.  

We are seeing the usual drop in bizjet demand following the holidays, with a dent in year-on-year activity due to the severity of the winter storms currently pummelling the US. In Europe, although the 4-week year on year decline is only 2%, the drops in bizjet activity out of Germany and France is eye-catching.

Global business aviation activity has started the new year slightly behind comparable 2023, which itself was a rebound on locked-down January 2022. The US leisure market appears to be relatively weaker during the recent holiday period. In Europe, the UK and France markets were well back on last year, but this was offset overall by strong activity in Turkey and Spain.

The 3% drop in flight activity during 2023 compared to 2022 was in line with expectations, representing the market reset which followed the frothy demand during the pandemic era. Demand has petered out in Europe, where the Ukraine war has compounded the effects of economic stagnation. In the US, 17% growth in bizjet traffic since 2019 represents 4% compound annual growth rate, not spectacular but much stronger than the anemic growth in bizjet demand in the previous decade.

December appears to be a blip in the steady trend of the last few months, with flight activity growth compared to 2019 diminishing substantially. In fact Europe is now clearly trending below 2019 levels. In the Middle East and Asia, the latest week has seen very large drops in bizjet demand. In the US, the key hub, Florida, saw bizjet flights fall 7% compared to December last year.

Global bizjet activity is now flat over the last 4 weeks compared to last year, falling behind the Covid surge in 2021, comfortably ahead of 2019. Bizjet demand in Europe is weakening towards 2019 trend. Middle East is weaker, with 15% drop YOY in the latest week, although notably the COP conference drew a spike in bizjet arrivals. The US is still relatively strong, especially for the largest operators.

Once the holiday fluctuations are accounted for, November was a flat month for business jet activity, though fractional flying is still at record pace, particularly in large cabin flying, with Florida and Texas the bizjet hubs in the US. In Europe, November saw a slump in demand, with the full month seeing lower activity in France and Germany than back in November 2019.

Thanksgiving holidays in the US were ahead of the 2019 holiday, also sustaining a pickup in November vs November last year. European bizjet traffic was flat compared to 2019, some 7% off the comparative traffic in 2019. As in Europe, both Asia and Middle East are seeing activity soften this November compared to last year.