Business aviation flights in June remain healthy, but growth rate shrinking

Even with the rate of growth shrinking in North America, flight activity in business aviation remains healthy. That comes from the latest crunching of numbers by ARGUS International in its monthly TRAQPak report for June.

Global flight activity dropped slightly from May, down 0.3%. However, global activity remained up 8.3% from June 2021. The North American market finished up 1.9% year over year, while the European market recorded the busiest month on record after finishing up 31.6% from June 2021.

“Overall demand continues to remain at record levels, especially within Europe,” Travis Kuhn, senior vice president of market intelligence for ARGUS, told GlobalAir.com. “ However, the North American market is beginning to show signs of reaching a possible growth ceiling with July activity forecasted to remain essentially flat year over year, up 0.1% from July 2021. Most of the reduction in growth is tied to slowing growth in the Part 135 segment.”

The 3.4% decline year over year for Part 135 flights in June was the first such dip since December 2020.

Otherwise, aircraft categories in North America followed the same pattern as prior months but produced smaller gains, according to the ARGUS report. The large cabin segment still leads the way, up 3.0% from June 2021.

The Part 91 large cabin segment recorded year-over-year growth of 10.2%.

Month to month overall, June business aviation flight activity was essentially flat from May, posting a monthly decrease of 3.2%. May averaged 10,112 flights per day while June averaged 10,111.

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In Europe, flight activity in June rose 31.6% from June 2021, beating ARGUS estimates of 27.4%. It was a 14.1% increase from May.

“Large cabin activity continued to cool but remained very strong,” the report states. “(It’s) up 56.0% year over year.

Looking forward, TRAQPak analysts forecast a 0.1% increase in overall North American flight activity year over year for July 2022, as European activity is estimated to increase 18.1%.