Online Editor

Chad Trautvetter

<p>Business aircraft flight activity last month increased nearly 8 percent over February, according to data from Cincinnati-based ARG/US. This marks the second month-over-month upward trend in recent flight data from ARG/US and further strengthens hope that this is indeed a solid recovery sign for the business aviation industry. The specialized aviation-services firm estimates that flight activity has dropped an average of 1.76 percent per month over the last 12 months, with total flight activity declining 20.45 percent in that period. Compared with March last year, business jet and turboprop traffic was down 26.2 percent last month. All segments saw year-over-year flight activity decline last month, with large-cabin aircraft taking the largest drop at 44 percent. Turboprop activity fell 17.2 percent year-over-year; light jets, down 28 percent; and midsize jets, down 24.3 percent. By operator type, Part 91 flying decreased 12.5 percent year-over-year; Part 135, down 49.1 percent; and Part 91K/fractional, down 30.4 percent. Notably, fractional turboprop flying increased 1.4 percent. ARG/US’s flight data covers all turbine business aircraft on IFR flight plans in the U.S., including flights departing from or arriving in the U.S., but not aircraft that block their tail numbers at the FAA level.</p>
