Flight Friday: Small Jets, Turboprops Lead Business Aviation Recovery

With the upcoming NBAA event Oct. 22-24, this week’s Flight Friday looks at the recovery and sustained post-pandemic utilization levels within the business aviation sector.

Business aviation has been a rare silver lining for the aviation industry, post-pandemic. With well-documented issues for traveling by commercial passenger aircraft in 2020, certain people—who had the means and need to travel, especially in the domestic U.S.—turned to business aviation to fill their needs. The business aviation market is dominated by the North American market, with North American operators accounting for almost 71% of flights through the first three-quarters of 2024.

After the pandemic outbreak, the smaller aircraft picked up their utilization rapidly, and by the end of 2020, the sector’s small jets and turboprops had returned to utilization that was at or above the equivalent month in 2019. Small jet and multi-engine turboprop utilization continued to grow through to the end of 2022, before slightly softening, and plateauing during 2023. Multi-engine turboprop utilization has seen some continued softening in 2024, with few deliveries and an aging fleet that is starting to retire; 16% of 2024 retirements so far have been multi-engine turboprops.