According to WingX's weekly Global Market Tracker, global business aviation activity was down by 52.9 per cent from 1st through 26th of May compared to the same period of the month last year. There were 163,000 sectors flown worldwide this month compares to 347,000 sectors operated last year, a deficit of more than 183,000 sectors over 26 days. On average, 2,800 business aviation aircraft have been active globally each day this month, 48 per cent of the average fleet normally employed.

By region, North America is seeing the strongest recovery, with business aviation activity now recovered to 48 per cent of previous year levels. Europe is now easily the most acutely affected region, with flight activity still down by over 60 per cent. Asia is 53 per cent behind last year's operations but has not shown much sign of recovery recently. Africa is also down by over 50 per cent. South America is still relatively unaffected at 34 per cent below normal, with Oceania seeing the most resilience at 28 per cent below.

The moving seven-day average daily activity has maintained up its improvement, with May 26th seeing this indicator rising above 7,100 flights globally, 87 per cent higher than the low point in daily business aviation operations in mid-April. Business aviation continues to show more resilience than scheduled aviation, with airline traffic still 85% below normal levels. Business aviation's share of all fixed wing activity has doubled in the last three months.

Excluding the relatively less affected turboprop segment, business jet operations are down by 57 per cent globally this month. 75 per cent of sectors are US-originated, these down by 54 per cent. Next busiest country is Canada, then Germany with flights down by 49 per cent. France, the United Kingdom and Mexico follow on, but all have activity trends of at least 70 per cent below normal. Business jet activity in Italy is still trending down by more than 80 per cent. Countries where business jet activity is relatively less impacted so far this month include Sweden, Turkey and Brazil, with declines running at 44, 47 and 34 per cent respectively.

For business jet activity, the busiest airports worldwide this month are in Florida, Arizona and Texas. The busiest, West Palm Beach airport, is trending 25 per cent down so far this month, whilst Teterboro is ranked fifth for activity with jet movements down by 81 per cent compared to May 2019. In Europe, the busiest airports are Le Bourget, Zurich and Geneva. Biggin Hill is the busiest airport for business jet operations in the UK with departures down by 60 per cent in May. Outside Europe and North America, the busiest airports are in Sao Paolo and Hong Kong.

In the two busiest markets in North America and Europe, there is a distinct emphasis in favour of smaller cabin business aviation aircraft, with ultra-long range and heavy jets flying 65 per cent less, whilst light jet operations are down 51 per cent and very light jets by 46 per cent. The PC-12, Caravan 208 and King Air 200 are the three busiest of all business aviation platforms, recovering over half their normal activity. The busiest jet is the Challenger 300/350 with sectors down by 57 per cent in May. In the charter market, the King Air 350, Nextant 400 and Citation XLS are also all in relatively high demand.

Richard Koe, WingX managing director, comments: “It looks like we will see aircraft utilisation recovering from 70 per cent down in April to 50 per cent down in May. Business aviation is clearly coming back faster than scheduled aviation, with business jets now regaining some activity as well as turboprops. The US Is the key market with Florida, Texas, Arizona leading the recovery. We should see an acceleration in the recovery in the next couple of months as lockdown measures get released and forward bookings get flown. The industry will be hoping that pent-up demand gets released in time for at least some of the summer season.”

The Hamburg, Germany-based WingX noted some cause for optimism as the seven-day rolling average jumped from 4,800 flights on May 1, to 6,800 on May 19. At its low point in mid-April, the total plunged below 3,700 daily flights. In contrast, commercial scheduled flights are still around 85 percent below normal levels.

“The improvement in daily activity is encouraging, as is the higher fleet employment, but its too early to see if this demand is resilient or simply reflects the slight relaxation in government lockdown,” said WingX managing director Richard Koe. “The trajectory of virus suppression policy seems to indicate that international and especially intercontinental travel will be slowest to recover."