WingX: Russia, Turkey Drag Down European Bizav Flying

Business aircraft activity in Europe relapsed last month by 0.9 percent year-over-year, “mainly due to private jet owners flying less, particularly from Russia and Turkey, with heavy jet activity in general falling sharply,” according to a report released today by WingX Advance. “There is no doubt some wariness of the elevated terrorist threat, reflected in markedly less activity at major airports, with Nice obviously affected,” noted WingX managing director Richard Koe.

Overall, there were 74,689 business aviation departures in Europe last month, with the UK and France being the “main growth impetus,” with some year-over-year growth seen in Spain, Italy, Norway, Belgium and Ireland. However, the overall trend was weakened by softer activity in Germany and Switzerland, continuing decline in Russia, and a dramatic decline in Turkey, where flights plummeted by 27 percent, or 750 fewer departures than last August.

While jet activity took the brunt of falling demand last month, turboprop activity saw some recovery, with double-digit growth in Spain, Greece and Croatia. Flight activity within Western Europe retained its slight year-to-date growth trend, but Eastern and Southern Europe are down year-to-date.

Farnborough, Ciampino and Cannes were the only three of the busiest 10 airports in Europe not to see a decline. In fact, activity at Nice fell 8 percent last month, though it remained Europe’s busiest airport for business aviation.