WingX: Fourth of July Brings Big Boost to Bizav Ops

The Fourth of July holiday in the U.S. saw surging business aviation activity, “smashing records” and exceeding the 2019 level by some 44 percent, according to the latest WingX weekly Global Market Tracker. Comparing the same Thursday through Sunday periods, business aviation activity in the U.S. logged 11,000 more departures in 2021 than the pre-pandemic levels of 2019.

The ultra-long-range segment saw the biggest surge during the period, up 77 percent, while super-midsize-jet flights rose 66 percent and light jets climbed 60 percent.

In particular, departures from the U.S. to Mexico across the holiday period increased by 44 percent and to the Bahamas by 63 percent. With restrictions still in place, flights to Canada had not yet recovered, WingX reported.

Meanwhile, during the first six months, global business aviation activity fell less than 4 percent from the first half of 2019 and was 42 percent above a year ago. That comes against a backdrop of global scheduled airline activity that remained 45 percent down over the first half of 2019 and only up 10 percent from 2020.

In addition to the strong activity during the U.S. holiday, business aviation activity reached record levels globally in June, up 10 percent over the same month in 2019, WingX reported. Europe activity “is finally on the rebound,” WingX added, noting June 2021 business aviation flights inched above levels in the comparable month in 2019 by 2 percent, and the last week of June and the first week of July showed a 6 percent increase.

Courtesy of Kerry Lynch from AIN Online