One year ago, a storm in the name of COVID-19 pandemic brought the aviation industry to a halt like never before. European carriers were among the worst hit with the fall of 73.7 per cent in full-year traffic following North American and Asia-Pacific airlines, according to the International Air Transport Association (IATA). However, as the things started to settle down, the business aviation industry in particular garnered a lot of attention as the preferred mode of transport considering the social distancing norms. Uncertainty still hangs overhead but Europe seems to be on an optimistic side.

In March 2020, the air traffic in Europe dropped to 60 per cent in just seven days, as per Eurocontrol that supports European Aviation through information on air traffic situation. The European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) also highlighted that the year 2020 was the worst year in the civil aviation history, representing a loss of 1,60,000 business aviation flights (-25 per cent), which is about an average of 450 less daily flights compared to 2019.

One year down the line, things still looked shaky but last month came with some sunshine for European business aviation market. In Europe, business aviation activity is up 19 per cent compared to locked-down March 2020, although still 20 per cent behind comparable March 2019. Still, the rolling average daily activity has recovered to its highest level since October last year when the secondary lockdowns began.

According to data research and consulting company, WingX Advance, from the start of April through the first week of May, global business aviation traffic was up 200 per cent on last year, down by 8 per cent versus April-May 2019. In Europe too overall, business aviation flight activity is now up 10 per cent on same period in 2020, but still 20 per cent below 2019 trends. Daily business aviation flight activity has also picked up 30 per cent compared to the trough during the winter wave.

THE BUSIEST MARKETS IN EUROPE

France has come out as the busiest market of the year, as it is up 13 per cent, with domestic traffic up by 40 per cent. This is despite the fact that overall, flights from France are still 22 per cent behind 2019. France has also come out as the largest market for business aviation activity this year, with 21.8K sectors flown, being up by 2 per cent compared to 2020.

The UK is the third busiest market this year despite major lockdowns, while Russia and Turkey displayed the largest growth in traffic this year, with more than 60 per cent increase compared to the last year. Most of this growth has been attributed to domestic traffic. Turkey’s domestic activity is up 57 per cent, and international connections have more than doubled with Russia, Albania, Iraq, UAE and Israel. Additionally, business jet activity out of Turkey is trending 10 per cent higher than same period 2019. WingX also noted that other countries in Europe are seeing a stronger recovery this year with business jet and prop activity being up 13 per cent in Spain, 22 per cent in Italy, and 29 per cent in Russia, compared to January-April 2020.

European airports including Vnukovo, Mallorca, Ataturk, Belgrade, Athens, Ibiza, Larnaca, Cannes, Riga have experienced strong rebounds this year.

BUSINESS AVIATION FLIGHT TRENDS

There had been thirty-eight thousand business aviation flights in Europe in April 2021 as per WingX. This number is twenty-five thousand more than that in April last year. On a year-to-date basis, the European region is now 8 per cent ahead of last year in terms of traffic.

Observing some notable trends, business jet and prop departures in France are up 12 per cent this year, with 26 per cent gains in Spain, 34 per cent growth in Italy, 42 per cent increase in activity in Russia, and 70 per cent year-to-date increase in Turkey. The highest scaling has been noticed in the private flight activity which is up 25 per cent more sectors this year compared to the last one. However, international flow is still the weakest, with even the busiest connection between France and Switzerland still being nine per cent down on last year. For the year so far, non-commercial business aviation traffic was the one with the maximum recovery. Private flights now up 12 per cent this year in comparison to the last while branded charter activity fell back severely in 2021, still down two per cent on year-to-date 2020, according to WingX Advance’s data.

In addition to that, the strongest recovery this year has been displayed by very light jets with activity up by 36 per cent. Turboprops are also noted as flying much more in Europe this year with their hours having gone up 27 per cent. Heavy and ultralong range jets on the other hand are flying 7 per cent more than in the first four months of 2020. The Embraer Legacy has come out as the busiest heavy jet in Europe, sectors up 13 per cent this year, one per cent more compared to same period in 2019.

EASING MOBILITY ENCOURAGES RECOVERY

Europe witnessed a large bounce in April business aviation activity with flights up by 189 per cent in the first two weeks of April 2021 vs April 2020. A major reason for this has been the gradual easing of mobility restrictions. Another factor impacting the recovery could be that Europe is starting to see the effect of stopstart vaccination programs and hesitant reopening, WingX noted.

This ease has panned out well for the industry in the fourth month of the year otherwise even in March the scenario appeared to be sluggish. In March, WingX had noted European flight activity to be still well below pre-pandemic trends, with the total fleet declining more than 60 per cent in the first half of March, and airlines going through the steepest drop as flights were down by 72 per cent. The business aviation activity too was 16 per cent below normal. Despite that low, the BizAv activity was relatively robust with private and corporate flight departments being the sturdiest. Recovery in private operations was most evident in Spain, Austria, Russia, Turkey and Italy in March.

EBAA’s traffic tracker report released in March stated, “A year ago, COVID-19 hit Europe and had a huge impact on aviation. From the historical month of March and April 2020 onwards, business aviation has been hitting a bumpy recovery road. After a rapid recovery through summer 2020, the industry has (up until now) stabilised at around -25 per cent of its normal levels. Some general trends exist; however, the state of the industry remains very disparate depending on the different countries, the different airports and the different routes (and several other factors).”

EBAA also added that March 2021 reinforced the trend observed in January and February which was that Europe is divided into two zones. In Eastern Europe, business aviation is “globally” experiencing a positive start of the year (even compared with pre-Covid times). However, Western Europe (accounting for the biggest business aviation markets) remains the most impacted by the pandemic. Another key point as noted by the association was that with the airlines industry still at –73 per cent of its “normal” levels, business aviation accounts now for 16 per cent of all air transport in Europe.

Now that almost a third of the Europeans have been vaccinated and the COVID-19 cases are easing out, the European administration is considering to reopen. This further brings a ray of hope for the business aviation industry to seize an opportunity to upscale further and proceed towards recovery.