• Moscow is busiest airport in Europe for bizjet deps

The US has recorded its second highest daily activity since January last year peaking at 6,002 daily sectors but Europe is still hoping for a boost when travel restrictions are lifted, WingX’s weekly Global Market Tracker shows.

Business aviation activity globally is holding up with 177,835 flights in the first half of this month down by just 2% on the same period last year. That compares favourably with a 38% drop in global airline activity compared to the first two weeks of March 2020 while global cargo activity continues to grow, up 17% in terms of sectors operated. 

There is some good news on total flight activity – Asia is now up 30% on the lows of last year when lockdowns started.

However more than 80% of this month’s worldwide business aviation flights originated in the North American market and the busiest US state for charter demand is Florida with almost double the number of flights compared to the next busiest, California. At least five airports in Florida are seeing more than 25% growth in departures compared to last year.

Richard Koe, Managing Director of WINGX Advance, comments: “On 15^th March, the post-pandemic rolling 7-day activity in the US peaked at 6,002 daily sectors; that is the second highest daily activity since January 2020.  Operators in the European market will be hoping to see the same effect when restrictions are finally lifted this summer, especially in the UK where business jet sectors are down 62%.”

 US FOCUS

The United States is recovering fastest, with the first half of March up by 0.5% in terms of sectors, while trailing 2% in flight hours. Compared with the start of lockdown restrictions last year business jet traffic is up in Private, Fractional, Management and Branded Charter activity. Fractional activity is up by most, with a 4% overall gain including 10% growth in Light Jets and 20% growth in Very Light Jets. 

NetJets and Flexjet are up this month as are smaller operators such as AirShare and PlaneSense. The busiest airports for Fractional operators are Palm Beach and Dallas Love Field.

The US charter market continues to be buoyant; up to the anniversary of the lockdowns, branded charter operators in the US have increased sectors by 3% in 2021. The Entry Level and Very Light Jets have very strong growth this year with sectors up by 20%. Midsize and Super midsize jet flight hours are up close to 10% compared to the pre-pandemic period. 

Heavy Jet operations in the charter market are still down by 12% and Ultra-Long-Range hours are down by 25%.

EUROPE FOCUS

European flight activity is still well below pre-pandemic trends, with the total fleet declining more than 60% in the first half of March and airlines seeing the steepest drop with flights down by 72%. Business aviation is relatively robust at 16% below normal while cargo operations are almost 15% up year on year. 

Private and corporate flight departments are by far the most robust – just 1% below normal this month. Recovery in private operations is most evident in Spain, Austria, Russia, Turkey, and Italy, with the bounce in Italy already accounting for lockdowns in place a year ago. Activity in Poland, Greece, Ukraine, Hungary, Serbia is well ahead of the first half of March 2020.

 Vnukovo is the busiest airport for business jet activity this month, with a slight YOY increase, with Le Bourget in second place with departures down by 30% year on year. The busiest connection from Vnukovo is to Al Maktoum in Dubai followed by Sochi, St Petersburg, Riga, and Kazan. Other European pairs with strong growth include flights between Milan and Rome up by 80% on the lockdown period while business jet flights between Larnaca and Tel Aviv are well up year on year. The Turboprop segment is the only one which shows some increase on early March 2020.

REST OF THE WORLD FOCUS

More than half (53%) of this month’s business aviation activity is turboprop, with much of this in Australia. 

Mexico is the busiest market for business jet traffic, with sectors down by 20% and Canada the next busiest with 31% less activity year on year while Brazil is also falling behind early-year trends this month. 

Business jet activity in India, Nigeria, China, UAE is well up against March 2020 and there is still strong leisure demand, with flights out of Turks and Caicos up by 26%, and Maldives arrivals up by more than three times compared to pre-pandemic when travel restrictions were introduced on March 12^th, 2020 In the wider Asian region, the 7-day rolling average activity is back up to February 2020 levels.

Source: WINGX