Eastern Europe continues to drag down European flight recovery

The static display of aircraft at EBACE 2014 in Geneva

Flight activity in Europe has started to slow down, with flights to and from Eastern Europe and Russia taking the biggest hits.

WINGX Advance’s update from November 2014 shows that there were 57,730 business aviation flights in Europe, representing a 0.9 per cent year-on-year decline over the flights during November 2013.

“In Western Europe, business aviation activity is still edging back up this year, though this month’s data indicates this owes more to turboprop and piston activity, with business jet activity still languishing, said Richard Koe, managing director of WINGX Advance. “In the broader European market, steep declines in Eastern Europe, Russia and Turkey have stalled overall growth. Where there is still YOY increase in jet activity, it’s in the familiar VLJ and ULR jet segments.”

Although confidence has been picking up over the course of the last two months, November’s deficit means that the year-to-date numbers remain at 0.6 per cent below the amount of flights for the same period last year.

Eastern European flights were down 18 per cent and Russia was down 14 per cent. Turkey also continued its decline, with a 5 per cent drop in November contributing to a 11 percent total for the year.

The business jet market continued to polarise, with the resurgence in very light jet (VLJ) flights continuing and the ultra-long-range jet sector up 10-percent, with private flights doing particularly well in the sector.

At the smaller end of the market it was the Citation Mustang that performed the best, with charter and private flights performing strongly.