Business jet operations continue to demonstrate sustained growth, with flights in North America and Europe up 12 percent over the last 10 days compared with the same period in 2019, according to WingX’s newest Global Market Tracker, released today. Air cargo flights are also trending up by 8 percent over pre-pandemic levels but scheduled airline traffic, while up 60 percent over last year, is still down more than 30 percent from 2019.

Through the first nine months of this year, business jets have flown 2.5 million flights—2.2 percent above this same period in 2019. “Regionally, business jet flight trends in North America are up by a couple of points, Europe back on a level, traffic in Asia up by 9 percent, with much stronger trends but smaller volumes in Africa, South America,” WingX added.

Business jet connections are showing a bounce in regions that are softening restrictions, particularly for international traffic, WingX said. Notably, outbound business jet flights from the UK to Europe over the last 10 days have jumped 80 percent from the same period last year and 7 percent compared with the same period in 2019, according to WingX. EU countries have seen a 24 percent jump in business jet flights in the last 10 days, it added.

Business jet traffic in the U.S. is accelerating as it continues into what is typically the busiest month of the year, WingX said. Charter operations are up 26 percent over pre-pandemic levels and domestic charters alone are up 33 percent. Traffic in Asia is slowly recovering but still down from 2019 in East and Southeast Asia.

“Business jet activity continues to beat records set pre-pandemic,” said WingX managing director Richard Koe. “Business jet utilization for the leading charter and fractional operators is maxing out, which explains the increasing restrictions on usage options which guarantee availability.”