Main news

Vertical Aerospace (Vertical) (NYSE: EVTL) (“Vertical” or the “Company”), a global aerospace and technology company that is pioneering electric aviation, announces that it completed the world’s first airport-to-airport piloted flight by a full-scale, winged tilt-rotor eVTOL designed for commercial service.

In Week?28, global bizjet activity reached 76,604 departures, an increase of 13% over the prior week and 4% above Week?28 of 2024. While still shy of this cycle’s 52?week peak of 78,808 flights (recorded in Week?26 of 2025), activity remains well ahead of the 52?week trough of 60,521 (Week?2 of 2025). Looking at the rolling four?week total, global flights are 4% ahead of versus the same period last year.

In the last week, Week 26 (23rd – 29th June), global bizjet activity grew 2% compared to Week 26 last year, marking the 10th consecutive week of year-on-year growth. Global Part135 & 91K activity grew 3% compared to Week 25 last year, the last four-week trend 5% ahead of comparable last year.

Bombardier proudly announces a significant firm order for 50 of its performance-leading Challenger and Global aircraft, combined with a first-of-a-kind service agreement. Together, the firm aircraft and service agreements are valued at US$1.7 billion with deliveries set to begin in 2027.

Business jet activity continues to grow YOY, more than 3% gains in H1 2025 in stark contrast to last year´s stagnant market. The growth is influenced by the US market, notably in Texas and Florida, with the charter and fractional operators flourishing. The bizjet market in Europe is slack, with key markets seeing a drop-off compared to last year´s surge in demand around the EURO tournament. There was a relatively large number of movements in the Middle East, noting flights exiting the region from Jordan and Qatar.

Unsurprisingly business jet activity has slowed in the Middle East as a result of the conflict between Israel and Iran, noting also a spike in bizjet flights from Gulf countries. In Europe, the German market was down more than a quarter from its highs during the Euros in 2024. Business jet demand in the US keeps on growing. The US Open was a showcase for spikes in bizjet attendance at airports closest to blue riband sporting events.

Luxaviation UK is seeing a demographic shift in customer profile, as Millennials now account for 50% of its business jet clientele.

Despite growing economic headwinds, which may be affecting aircraft transactions, bizjet flight activity bounced up this week, with May YOY activity keeping pace with the strong Q1 pace for aircraft utilisation, leading operators continuing to fly at record levels.

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) published the First Quarter 2025 General Aviation Aircraft Shipment and Billing Report. The results for the first three months of 2025 when compared to the same period in 2024 show increased shipments across all sectors and an increase in the overall value of aircraft shipments.

Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. announced the 50th customer delivery of the Gulfstream G700. The aircraft was outfitted at Gulfstream’s Savannah completions center. Since entering service in April 2024, the G700 operates globally, and the fleet has accumulated more than 11,700 flight hours.

Bombardier announced that the first production Global 8000 aircraft has successfully completed its inaugural flight. The milestone was completed on May 16 from Bombardier’s state-of-the-art Aircraft Assembly Centre in Mississauga, Ont., and the aircraft executed a series of tests, part of the production flight test procedures during the flight. The exquisite jet landed under the expert command of pilot Sandro Novelli, assisted by co-pilot Charlie Honey and flight engineer Bhargav Bhavsar. All flight controls were exercised on the aircraft, and the systems and aircraft performed as expected.

Textron Aviation announced a major program milestone for the Cessna Citation CJ4 Gen3 flight test program with the successful first flight of a second test article — P1. Testing on the P1 aircraft will focus on avionics, human factors and interiors. The Citation CJ4 Gen3 business jet is designed to keep pilots a step ahead in the cockpit by offering the next-generation Garmin G3000 PRIME avionics along with the most standard features in its class.  

Flight activity in May clearly shows that the Trump bump back in November has dissipated, although there are no signs in the US market of a major relapse in demand which would reflect the deteriorating economic outlook since Trump’s tariffs. The one country where there is a clear indication of tariff impact is Germany, where demand is flagging significantly the last few weeks.

There were 4,131 civil turbine helicopters operating in the Asia-Pacific region at the end of 2024, which was an increase of 64 over the previous year. While this 1.6% year-on-year fleet growth in the region seemed modest and was similar to the annual percentage growth during the period 2019 – 2022, the Asia-Pacific based fleet has in fact grown by 850 units during the past 10 years, with a year-on-year compound growth of 2.3% since 2014.

Business jet demand has tapered a little in the last couple of weeks but is still trending above 2024, with activity in Texas and Florida hubs exceeding 5%, and fractional operations continuing to grow close to 10% this year. Europe had a strong week, but April trends indicate a flat market.

Global business jet activity rebounded significantly following Easter holidays in the core US market two weeks ago, activity in the latest week, Week 17 (21 – 27th April) jumped 11% compared to Week 16. The core US market recorded 11% growth compared to Week 17 last year, meanwhile in Europe, whilst activity was 12% ahead of the previous week, it was 4% below Week 17 in 2024.

Members of the International Aircraft Dealers Association (IADA) reported completing 316 aircraft sales transactions in the first quarter of 2025, a 24% increase from 254 deals during the same period last year.

The big dip in YOY traffic this week may appear to be the fallout from broader economic concerns but in fact we are only seeing the usual slowdown during Easter holidays, and indeed bizjet flights this Easter are comfortably ahead of Easter week last year. For the month of April, and for the year to date, bizjet demand is still trending ahead of last year.

As yet, there is little sign of a slowdown in business jet demand as a result of the volatility in financial conditions triggered by Liberation Day. Indeed there was some unusual growth in bizjet activity in some markets this Week, most notably in Europe. It may even be that the bounce in flight activity this week reflects business opportunities which need to be realised during the brief respite from the full tariff program.

Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of General Dynamics (NYSE:GD), announced the all-new Gulfstream G800, the world’s longest-range business aircraft, has earned type certification from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) along with certification from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and has done so with even greater performance capabilities than originally anticipated.