Europe’s business aviation sector is still adjusting to an environment of excess capacity precipitated by declining demand following the booming Covid-19 years.
The pandemic drove record numbers of people to private air travel, prompting companies to acquire more aircraft and to squeeze more hours out of their jets.
Since then, many new customers have fallen away.
“Massive over-capacity” is how Christoph Kohler, managing director of aviation data intelligence provider WingX, describes Europe’s business aviation industry.
“There is lots of idle capacity,” he added, speaking on 21 May during a Flight Daily News Live session at EBACE.
Europe’s business aircraft fleet now includes about 3,000 aircraft – roughly 10-15% more than in pre-pandemic 2019. Flight activity peaked in 2022 and has since sagged about 15%, Kohler says. “That is a significant drop.”
European corporate flight activity has slipped even more due to factors including regulatory and activist pressure. Some firms “don’t want to be seen coming in with a tail number that someone could track”, says Rolland Vincent, president of business aviation advisory Jetnet IQ.
“You can see those corporate flight departments basically trying to get off the radar, and getting into either aircraft management or fractional [ownership],” adds Kohler.
As a result, demand for fractional aircraft ownership has remained relatively healthy.
“That’s an investment. People are putting capital on the table and taking a position,” says Vincent. “A charter is… easy in, easy out. So you are always going to see more volatility there.”
During the booming Covid-19 years, fractional providers often relied on charter operators to provide “supplemental lift”, says Vincent.
Less so today.
“Fractional providers are not requiring the backup… that we had seen,” he adds. “A few years ago, they needed a lot more help from charter than they were seeing today.”
