Continuing declines in North America and Europe drove down global business aviation flight activity year-over-year (YOY) in March by 3.7 percent, according to the latest TraqPak report from Argus International. Operations in the North American market dropped 4.2 percent from March 2023 and were off by 11.3 in Europe. This tamped down the global results despite the 10.2 percent gain in the other parts of the world.
Argus anticipates the YOY activity to still be down in April, but not as precipitously as in March. The data and safety analyst forecast business aviation activity in North America to be off by 1.4 percent in April and only by 0.3 percent in Europe.
"March wrapped up Q1 remaining status quo; however, the early data in April has shown an uptick in activity,” said Travis Kuhn, senior v-p of software for Argus. “If that change holds, then we would be looking at improving activity across the North American market. The key market to watch remains the Part 135 market as it continues its recent run of declines."
In North America, fractional activity logged the only YOY growth area, up by 12.6 percent. Part 135 operations slid by 6.2 percent and Part 91 by 8.4 percent. Operations involving midsize aircraft edged into the positive side, by 0.1 percent, the only cabin class to do so. Turboprop operations were down by 8.5 percent, large cabins by 6.7 percent, and small cabins by 3.2 percent.
Turboprop activity was much quieter in March in Europe as well, when compared with a year earlier. Business aircraft turboprop operations dropped by 23.2 percent YOY in March, large cabins by 11.2 percent, and small cabins by 7.4 percent. Similar to North America, the midsize cabin held its own, matching operations from a year ago.
Conversely, in the rest of the world, turboprops led the improvements, up 18.7 percent year-over-year. This was followed by small cabin operations increasing by 10.1 percent from March 2023 and midsize cabins by 9.9 percent. Large-cabin operations, however, dipped by 1.9 percent in the month.