Argus: Bizav Flying Maintains Altitude in November

Global business aircraft flight activity was flat last month, falling by just 0.3% from November 2023, with North America seeing a stronger decline than initially expected, slowing 3.8% year over year (YOY), according to Argus International’s latest TraqPak data. The European market was mostly flat, ebbing 0.8% last month, while flying in the rest of the world climbed by 18.3% from a year ago.

“November activity in North America was expected to decline but it did slow a bit more than planned. Large-cabin activity continues to be a catalyst for declines as both Part 91 and 135 reported a double-digit decline in this cabin class last month,” said Argus v-p of software Travis Kuhn. “Looking ahead, we expect the first half of December to be up slightly from last year, with an overall expected gain of 1.6%” in North America. He is also predicting Europe will see a 1% increase this month.

In North America, fractional activity produced the only gain among the operating categories last month, rising 5.1% YOY. Part 135 flying slumped 3.5% while Part 91 declined 7.5%. All aircraft categories in this region were negative last month, with large-cabin jets lagging the most, falling 12.4% from November 2023. Midsize jets followed with a decline of 3.5%, light jets dropped 1.7%, and turboprops trailed off by 1.2%.

Europe fared better in November, with all three jet categories trending positive versus a year ago: light cabin, up 1.6%; midsize cabin, + 3.5%; and large cabin, +1.1%. However, these gains were more than offset by a 9.1% YOY decrease in turboprop flying last month.

The rest of the world continued to be a bellwether for activity, as turboprops soared by 26.3%, followed by midsize jets, +18.3%; light jets, +17.8; and large-cabin jets, +5.9%.