Global business jet activity expanded 2.0 per cent year-on-year in Week 19 (4–10 May). With the year-to-date figure (1 January–10 May) now at 3.9 per cent ahead of last year, this marks a slight deceleration compared to the 4.6 per cent YTD growth trend reported through last week (through 3 May) and a sizeable improvement on the 2.6 per cent increase achieved over the same period in 2025 over 2024. While accounting for 72 per cent of all business jet sectors flown last week, North America grew 2.4 per cent year-on-year, while South America and Asia led growth at 21.7 and 12.0 per cent, respectively.

As a preview for the upcoming World Cup, WingX has analysed three recent World Cups, namely Germany 2006, Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022, to investigate the surge in business jet demand that the tournament brings. All three tournaments demonstrate intensifying business jet surges as the tournament progresses. At Qatar 2022, surge factors (that is host city business jet traffic the day before, the day of and the day after the match compared to typical three-day traffic levels) begin at a modest 1.9x in the Group Stage, then 3.5x in the semi final, finally peaking at 12.3x in the final.

For 2026, WingX forecasts a total of more than 73,000 match-day related business jet flights across all 16 host cities, with New York alone accounting for 27,900. Charter and fractional providers stand to capture meaningful additional revenue, with the World Cup projected to generate an estimated $247 million in additional charter and fractional hourly revenue across the tournament window at host cities.

Nick Koscinski, WingX analyst, comments: “Modest growth last week with top fractional providers continuing their strong growth in 2026. We're now looking towards the World Cup and the extra revenue that operators and FBOs will capture.”