Business aircraft flight activity in North America last year ended up by 5.1 percent over 2021 but traffic remained largely flat for the last three quarters of 2022, according to Argus International’s year-end analysis released on Friday. “We began 2022 in arguably the strongest position business aviation has ever been in, but we ended 2022 with some of the first activity losses since the pandemic began to loosen its grip on air travel,” says Argus’s "2022 North America Business Aviation Review."

Traffic continued to surge in the first quarter of 2022, up 23.2 percent year-over-year. But the last nine months of the year combined for just a 0.4 percent gain over the same period in 2021. This was still well above pre-pandemic levels, up 15.2 percent from 2019. While activity was up in the single digits in 2022, flight hours soared 10.6 percent from 2021, Argus added.  

Large cabin jet operations led the year-over-year gains in 2022, with an increase of 11.4 percent. This was followed by midsize jets, 5.2 percent; light jets, 4.6 percent; and turboprops, 2.3 percent.

By operational category, Part 135 began to see the jump in operations wane, ending the year at a 1.3 percent increase over 2021. Fractional operations saw a 6.6 percent increase, and Part 91 operations improved by 7.9 percent, with large-cabin activity in that category up 13.9 percent.

As for flight hours, large cabins led with a 23.9 percent increase, followed by midsize jets, 9.4 percent; light jets, 6.4 percent; and turboprops, 6.2 percent.