According to Richard Koe, MD, WINGX Advance, global business aviation has shown incredible resilience over the last 12 months with Russia, Turkey and the US markets now all showing strong signs of recovery. Koe was speaking at the British Business and General Aviation Association’s (BBGA’s) AGM, which was held online on Thursday 4 March.
WINGX data also highlighted that Russia and Turkey recorded more business aviation activity during the first two months of 2021 than they did during the same period in 2020. And while Europe has had a slight relapse in its recovery as a result of recent travel restrictions and quarantine regulations, the business aviation sector shows more resilience than scheduled traffic across the continent.
Although it’s still early days “continued investment and consolidation within the business aviation sector is exciting,” Koe noted. “Overall we are expecting Europe’s business aviation sector will be back within 10% of 2019 levels by the end of the year.”
However, airports remain under immense pressure with revenues from airport fees, such as landing and parking, adversely affected by the drop in traffic. “UK airports have by far seen the largest decline in revenues in Europe,” Koe added. Luton and Farnborough were both highlighted as business aviation airports suffering big declines due to their exposure and popularity for ultra long-range private jets.
Referencing a comment by Bill Gates that 57% of corporate travel will disappear as a result of the global pandemic and the rise in online meetings and virtual conferences, Koe agreed that although ultra high-net wealth has increased, corporate travel lags behind the recovery of leisure travel for the super wealthy. Worth noting however was that the rise in private aviation travel for leisure/ lifestyle reasons could offset the lack of business travel. Last summer showed that there was pent up demand to get away with passengers more willing to travel for leisure than for corporate reasons.
Koe concluded that with many scheduled airlines continuing to pull back on their schedules through 2021, business aviation is clearly supplementing eroded scheduled connections and is on track for cyclical recovery with charter operations a key driver behind the sector’s resilience.
