Data from March 2014 shows European flight increase

The latest data from WINGX Advance shows business aviation flight increases across Europe during March.

Private jets parked at Zuirch Airport.

WINGX Advance, a German-based data research and consultancy company, has released its March 2014 flight movement data, with analysis showing month-on-month increases of 22 per cent and year-on-year increases of 2.1 per cent.

However, a cautionary note in the accompanying press release states that while business aircraft activity was up on the whole, movements by business jets, especially in the charter sector, were down.

Overall, there were 52,931 business aviation flights in Europe in March, representing a 22 per cent increase over February’s figure and a 2.1 per cent increase in flights over the same month the previous year.

Richard Koe, managing director of WINGX Advanc, says: “Private flight activity increased 8 per cent overall and 20 per cent in Italy, so clearly aircraft owners have renewed interest in using their assets. This should have positive repercussions for aircraft management. Meanwhile, the charter market is still stagnant, with some long-standing exceptions, such as strong demand for ultra long range and very light jets and some more recently renewed demand for such aircraft as the Citation Excel.”

Flight activity just for business jets was down 1.1 per cent, with charter flights suffering a 3.9 per cent dip.

But it was the turboprops that helped prop up the numbers, with an 8 per cent increase in all turboprop flights, with business flights jumping up an impressive 28 per cent.