Business Aviation Facts

Like other means of transport and the European industrial sector to which it is closely related, the use of business aircraft experienced a sharp slowdown in 2009, a modest recovery in the following two years, and was again hit by the effects of a double-dip in 2012 and 2013.

As a cornerstone of the European air transport value chain, business aviation provides its users with an efficient and flexible transportation mean, connecting 103,000 cities-pairs in Europe, i.e. more than 3 times the city-pairs provided by scheduled carriers. Actually, 96% of these city-pairs are not served in a regular way by scheduled air transport.
Despite popular misbeliefs, with only 0.04% of the total CO2 emission, the ecological footprint of business aviation is the smallest of all transport industry. It actually only emits less than 2% of the total air transport emissions, whislt it represents more than 7% of the total IFR movements in Europe.

As a sector business aviation accounts for over $ 20 billion to the European economy and employs more than 160,000 people across Europe.

To learn more about business aviation's value to the community, read this compelling, independent, quantitative study conducted by EBAA and Oxford Economics with the kind support of some leading EBAA Members:

Business Aviation - The Facts

• 96% – proportion of city pairs served by business aviation in 2011 that had NO scheduled connection. The remaining 4% represent however more than 1/3 of business aviation traffic in volume.
• Twice as fast as GDP – expected medium-term growth rate for business aviation demand at Paris-Le Bourget
• 70% – proportion of business aviation flights taking off and landing at airports handling fewer than 100 departures per day
• 66% – proportion of corporate decision makers regarding face-to-face meetings as critical to M&A success
• Up to 25% of operator revenues are derived from multiple destination journeys
• 164,000 – persons employed in business aviation around Europe
• €9bn – value of business aviation aircraft manufacturing

With over 800 operators and around 4,000 business aircraft (composed of turboprops and jets), the sector is extremely competitive and boasts a variety of concepts and business models, which make it a very flexible, easy to adapt, business tool for executives who need to tour Europe and the world in their quest for business growth.

As a matter of fact, and contrary to other regions of the world, around 2/3 of all movements in Europe are charter, commercial, operations, whilst the remaining is split between corporate and private, both non-commercial, activities thus underlining, if needed be, the close relationship between Europe Plc and business aviation.