This week the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) will bring business leaders from around the world to the Swiss town of Davos, and Air Charter Service predicts there will be close to 1,500 private jet flights over the week.

Andy Christie, private jets director at ACS, says: “The global interest in the event led us to analyse the private jet activity over the past five years of WEF. Davos doesn't have its own airfield and, whilst we have several clients who fly into the town by helicopter, the four main airfields that private jet users attending the forum use are Zurich, Dubendorf, St. Gallen-Altenrhein and St. Moritz.
“Working with WingX, we looked at private jet activity at those airports over the six days of each WEF week since 2013, from one day before the event to one day after. Last year was the busiest year for private jets so far, showing an 11% increase on 2017, with more than 1,300 aircraft movements. If we see a similar increase this year, we could be looking at almost 1,500 aircraft movements over the six days.
“The week of the forum is unlike any other busy private jet event, such as the Super Bowl or Champions' League final; it's unique for the industry in that we receive bookings from a number of our offices around the world, rather than just the one or two offices in the region where the event is being held. We have had bookings from as far as our operations in Hong Kong, India and the US; no other event has the same global appeal.
“Top countries involved in terms of arrivals in and departures out of the local airports over the past five years have typically been Germany, France, UK, USA, Russia and UAE, in that order. There appears to be a trend towards larger aircraft, with expensive heavy jets the aircraft of choice, and Gulfstream GV and Global Express types both being used more than 100 times each last year. This is at least in part due to some of the long distances travelled, but also possibly due to business rivals not wanting to be seen to be outdone by one another.”