Business aircraft flight activity in Europe climbed 2.9 percent year-over-year last month, but full-year activity was down 1.6 percent versus 2018, according to the latest data from WingX Advance. Most of last month’s growth came in the business jet sector, which increased 4.5 percent from December 2018.

“December activity was surprisingly positive. Partly this is due to December 2018 being particularly weak; this December´s activity was still well below the peak December activity back in 2007,” said WingX managing director Richard Koe. “The overall trend for the year was negative, however. For the full year, the UK and Germany were the weakest regional markets.”

In line with that assessment, flight activity out of the UK slipped 3 percent last month, and Germany saw the greatest decline, WingX said. Meanwhile, most of the other larger markets logged increases last month—notably Italy, Austria, and Spain, it added.

Intra-European flights rose 3 percent last month, culling the year-to-date deficit to 1.7 percent, according to WingX. Flights from Europe to North America increased by 2 percent for the year, while those to Asia-Pacific fell 9 percent during 2019.