Business Aircraft Flying Soars Higher in December

Global business aircraft flight activity last month climbed 7.3% year over year (YOY), with North America reporting a stronger-than-expected increase—up 4.1% from December 2023—according to TrakPak data from Argus International. The European market also turned positive, rising 1.3% YOY, while the rest of the world continued with its upward trend, soaring 30% from a year earlier. Argus analysts are predicting that North American and European flying will be 5.8% and 0.8% higher YOY, respectively, this month.

“Business aviation flight activity delivered a nice Christmas gift to finish out 2024. We had expected it to be a positive month, but our growth models were expecting about half of what we ended up seeing,” said Argus senior v-p of software Travis Kuhn. “In North America, we still have areas of concern in large-cabin-jet Part 91 and Part 135 activity. We do expect Part 135 activity to finally begin to show positive gains on a consistent basis as we move into 2025.”

All operator and aircraft categories in North America saw increases in December. Fractional flying had the strongest returns, up 13.3% YOY, followed by Part 135 and Part 91, with 2.8% and 1.6% gains, respectively. By aircraft category, midsize jets took the lead with a 7.1% increase, followed by light jets, +4.8%; turboprops, +2.4%; and large-cabin jets, +0.3%. While the latter was the most challenged, fractional large-cabin jets experienced the only double-digit surge—up 20.8%—in individual categories last month.

In Europe, all jet categories recorded increased activity last month, with large-cabin jets in the pole position, up 5.3%, followed by midsize jets, +1.9%, and light jets, +0.3%. Turboprop flying in the region fell 2.7% YOY.

All aircraft categories experienced double-digit gains in the rest of the world: turboprops, +45.5%; midsize jets, +27.9%; light jets, +22.4%; and large-cabin jets, +13.6%.