WingX: Bizjet Operations Flourishing Despite Fuel Swings

Business aviation has been consistently inelastic to fuel price swings, and that trend is holding true with the most recent conflict in the Middle East, WingX reported today. Noting that global business jet activity was up 4.4% year over year (YOY) during the week ending May 3, and by 4.6% since the beginning of the year, WingX maintained that demand is shrugging off the fuel price swings.

Likewise, in 2022, when the Russia-Ukraine conflict generated a spike in fuel prices, business jet departures still increased, WingX reported. “Through the past six years of a pandemic and conflict outbreaks, the correlation between fuel cost and bizjet flying activity has been weak,” the data analyst maintained.

At the same time, though, the conflict continues to take a toll on operations in the Middle East, albeit less so than in late March and early April. Fuel uplift in the Middle East was down by 10% YOY for the week from April 27 to May 3 over the baseline leading up to the conflict with Iran. But that still was up 10% from the prior week. By comparison, in the week ending April 5, fuel uplift was off by 45% YOY.

As for global activity, operations jumped by 5.2% YOY in North America and 7% in Europe last week. In South America, activity was up 15.7%.