According to WINGX weekly Global Market Tracker

Global business aviation activity was down by 70% coming into Tuesday 28^th April, for the month to date, compared to same period in 2019. Flights in Europe and North America closely resemble the global trend, and flights in Asia are still down by almost 70% this month. Business aviation activity in South America is down by 60%. Oceania is the most resilient region, flights declining by 48% in April.

Some good news can be identified in the incremental pick-up in business aviation flight activity in the last few days: sectors flown in the last 7 days have exceeded the activity of the previous 7 days by 19% globally, with the same comparison showing a 13% growth trend in Europe and North America, and a doubling of flights in Asia. The moving 7-day average activity, globally, has increased on every day since the 15^th April.  Comparably, the same 7-day average trend is still slightly declining for global scheduled aviation activity.

Just over 2,000 business aviation aircraft were operational on a daily basis worldwide in the last week, under a third of the normally operational fleet, but still comparing favourably to the 80% grounding of commercial aircraft. Regionally, the more business aviation resilient markets so far this month are Canada, Australia, Norway, Sweden and Brazil. Italy, Spain, Mexico and France have registered the biggest drops in flight activity in April.

All business jet segments continue to see big drops in flight activity this month, with lighter jet segments around 70% below normal, and large-cabin long-range aircraft flying at least 80% fewer sectors. Turboprop segment continues to be the most resilient, with sectors down by just under 60%. The busiest aircraft is the Cessna 208 Caravan, followed by PC12 and King Air 200, 90 and 350. The busiest jet platform is the Challenger 300.

Richard Koe comments: “The incremental growth in business aviation activity in the last 10 days appears to correlate with the cautious relaxation of virus-suppression policies in various regions of Asia, Europe and North America. With scheduled airline capacity still largely locked up, those business aviation operators which have kept fleets in operation may be stepping in to serve pent-up demand. As wider measures are adopted to relax the lockdown, we expect to see some recovery in flight activity, especially in domestic markets, which may continue to favour lighter aircraft.”

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