Fractional Growth To Continue, while Charter Gains in 2H

Forecasting an overall 2.2% growth in business aviation activity in North America in the second half, Argus International anticipates that the fractional market will lead the way in this jump, logging a 3.5% increase. But in its Mid-Year Business Aviation Review, the data analyst and safety specialist also predicts that the Part 135 charter sector will be on the heels of fractional with a 3.4% increase, while Part 91 lags with 0.5% growth.

Argus anticipates that business aviation traffic in North America will remain stronger year over year in all months in the second half except in September, which is expected to fall just below last year’s level by nearly 50 flights.

These predictions come off a first half where private operations led the tally at 759,446 departures, up from 757,308 a year earlier. Charter followed at 641,518, an increase over the 622,470 in first-half 2025. Fractional still has roughly half as many operations as charter but remains the hot growth market, with 371,138 operations in the first half, eclipsing 332,330 from a year ago.

Argus also detailed traffic by days of the week, finding little change between 2025 and 2026. In both years, Thursday remained the peak day (averaging 11,201 flights in first-half 2026) and Saturday the lightest (averaging 7,545 flights in first-half 2026).