Business Aviation Demand Holding Steady with 4% Growth

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Global Bizjet Activity

Global bizjet activity expanded 4.4% year-on-year in Week 18 (27 April – 3 May), with the year-to-date figure (1 January – 3 May) steady at +4.6% ahead of last year, no change compared to the YTD trend reported through last week (26 April), and a sizeable improvement on the +2.6% achieved over the same period in 2025 vs 2024. While accounting for 73% of all bizjet sectors flown last week, North America grew 5.2% year- on-year, while Europe, the world’s second largest market (13% of Week 18 flights), saw strong 7.0% growth, and the emerging market of the year, South America, gained 15.7%, while representing just 0.6% of all global activity.

Chart 1: Global Bizjet Departures Trends YTD (1 January – 3 May)

Bizjet Demand Shrugs Off Fuel Price Swings

WINGX analysis of S&P Global Platts FOB Arab Gulf Cargo pricing data compared against global bizjet departure data from January 2019 through March 2026 finds that business jet demand has been consistently inelastic to fuel price swings across multiple distinct market environments.

In 2022, when the Russia-Ukraine conflict generated a significant increase in fuel prices, global bizjet departures continued to grow. Prices then fell back through 2023-2025 without any meaningful demand response from bizjets, in either direction. Through the past 6 years of a pandemic and conflict outbreaks, the correlation between fuel cost and bizjet flying activity has been weak. The Arab Gulf average price in March 2026 reached $4.51 per USG, yet global bizjet activity rose 7.6% year-on-year vs March 2025.

The scatter plot below shows the month-on-month percentage change in global bizjet departures against the equivalent change in fuel prices across 2019 through March 2026. The wide dispersion of points confirms that monthly fuel price movements have had little effect on bizjet demand.

Chart 2: Global Bizjet Departures vs Fuel Price, Monthly % Changes, 2019 through March 2026

WINGX Rankings: The Busiest Bizjet Cities in Europe and North America

Chart 3: Top European cities by bizjet departures YTD (1 January – 3 May)

Chart 4: Top US cities by bizjet departures YTD (1 January – 3 May)

Middle East Weekly Evolution Tracker

WINGX estimated fuel uplift data continues to provide the clearest lens through which to measure the cumulative and weekly toll of the conflict on Middle East business aviation. The WINGX pre-conflict baseline is Weeks 7 – 10 (9 February – 8 March). While the conflict outbreak occurred on 28 February in Week 9, the material impact on jet fuel pricing did not begin to be felt until the week of 9 March (Week 11), meaning Weeks 7 – 10 captures operating conditions before the fuel cost shock began cascading through the market. Across those four weeks, Middle East bizjet activity averaged 1.5M USG of estimated fuel uplift per week, establishing the baseline against which subsequent weeks in the table below are measured.

Chart 5: Weekly Middle East bizjet fuel uplift trends pre vs post conflict

Nick Koscinski, WINGX Analyst, comments: "Week 18 continues the trend we’ve been seeing all year, with global bizjet demand holding strong at +4.6% year-to-date and continues to reinforce what we keep seeing: whether it’s record fuel prices or conflict outbreaks, bizjet demand remains intact."

In collaboration with JETNET, WINGX Managing Director Richard Koe and WINGX Analyst Nick Koscinski have developed the new recurring JETNET iQ Market Monitor report. The report sets out to provide market analysis across all JETNET Group coverage of business jet inventory, market, and flight activity. Please reach out to nick@wingx-advance.com for your copy of the report.