Business aviation continued its rebound from the depths of the Covid pandemic last month with global flight activity up more than 40 percent year-over-year, according to February TraqPak statistics from industry data analyst Argus.

North American flights increased nearly 30 percent with gains across the entire spectrum of Part 91, Part 135, and fractional. Part 91 saw the biggest improvement with a 34.4 percent increase. Largely sidelined during the peak of the pandemic, the large-cabin jet sector saw a 51 percent jump while small-cabin jet activity was up nearly 30 percent year-over-year. “Overall, business aviation activity for February 2022 recorded more than 60,000 additional flights when compared to February 2021,” said Argus v-p of market intelligence Travis Kuhn.

European activity rose 86.4 percent compared with February 2021, and nearly 20 percent from February 2020, despite the current conflict in Ukraine. As well, large-cabin jet usage was up more than 150 percent year-over-year in Europe.

Compared with January, North American flight activity was static, with approximately 100 more flights in February. Most aircraft segments saw a slight improvement, led by large-cabin jets which saw a 5 percent increase, though turboprops experienced a 3.7 percent decline. "February flight activity is typically down month-over-month from January, which makes the slight gain even more impressive for a month that is three days shorter," Argus noted.