Story ID: 
WingX: Bizav Soaring in May
By: Curt Epstein
Caption: For the first part of May global business jet activity was up by 23 percent compared with the same period last year and 9 percent over pre-pandemic 2019.
Word Count: 208
Global business jet activity is up 23 percent month-to-date from last year and further is ahead of pre-pandemic levels in May 2019 by 9 percent, according to industry data provider WingX Advance’s weekly global market report.

North American sectors climbed 20 percent over 2019 levels, having already surpassed one million departures since the start of the year. Flights between New York and Florida increased over the same span in 2021 by 26 percent and are up over May 2019 by 81 percent. Flight hours also increased month-to-date, indicating longer-range flights are also recovering.

In Europe—excluding the Russia-Ukraine region, which saw an 80 percent year-over-year decrease in business jet traffic—departures are still well up over pre-Covid 2019 totals, with 16 percent more flights than in the first part of May 2019. The rest of the world is seeing a 7 percent increase in flights versus 2019, despite activity in China being 62 percent lower than in May 2019.

“Growth trends in flights compared to pre-pandemic seemed to stutter in April, but are surging in May, especially for business jet demand in the U.S.,” said WingX managing director Richard Koe. “Branded charter operations and private flight departments are both flying high, while corporate flight departments are seeing signs of recovery but still at modest levels.”