The number of business aviation flights in Europe grew by 5.5 per cent in 2010, according to statistics released by Eurocontrol.

Internal flights within Turkey grew fastest, with German internals, UK-Switzerland and UK-North Atlantic also strong.

Nice, London/Luton, Zurich and Brussels all saw near 15% growth in business aviation flights. Though Italy increased its share overall, its two main airports were relatively weak, so Nice and London Luton pushed ahead of Linate and Ciampino into third and fourth place, respectively, behind Le Bourget and Geneva.

It was the 19-seaters which flew most, lead by the Falcon 2000, Challenger 600 and Falcon 900 all with more than 70 flights a day. The fastest-growing seat class was the six-seater jets. Half of this growth was from the Mustang, with the bulk of the rest of the growth from the Citation CJ3 and Phenom 100.

Eurocontrol sees business aviation continuing to grow for the next couple of years as the market rebuilds itself after the financial crisis, but at lower rates than previously.