Overall, business aviation flight activity in Europe is down by 6.9% during the first 17 days of March period, compared with the same period in March 2019. There have been big fluctuations day-day, and a trend towards severe overall decline during the last few days.

In the busiest business aviation markets, France has seen the largest decline, 12% fewer flights, with Germany down by 4%, but so far Spain, UK and Sweden departures are all up vs same period 2019.

Small aircraft have evidently been doing much of the repatriation work, mainly within Europe; Super Light, Super Mid, Very Light and Entry Level flights are up. Large Jet activity is well down.

Paris Le Bourget has seen the biggest drop in activity Month-To-Date (MTD), flights down by 11%. Whereas, so far, flights out of London are well up, notably from Farnborough, Luton and Biggin Hill.

In terms of domestic country activity, France and Italy have seen very big reductions. Flights within Germany and within Sweden are well up. MTD trends are converging downwards in last week.

By Operator Type, Aircraft Management companies have seen a big reduction in travel, whereas Branded Charter operators have growth trends MTD. Private flight departments also busier.

Richard Koe comments:

• Business aviation is clearly impacted by the Coronavirus, with accelerating declines in the last few days belying the overall 7% drop month-to-date. We expect flights to dry up next week once restrictions are stricter and the repatriation rush is done.
• That said, notwithstanding the enforcement of personal travel, we do expect a strong demand for business aviation to fill gaps left by the grounding of airline capacity. By comparison with business aviation, airline flights have declined much more heavily.
• Looking forward, the economic impact of the Coronavirus, already well evident in stock markets and bond yields, is bound to strike the business aviation industry relatively hard, particularly where expenditure has been discretionary.

• In upcoming Trackers WINGX will be capturing all global business aviation activity on a multiregional basis and relating these trends to wider trends in airline and cargo movements.