Rise and Fall of the Business Aircraft Industry 2012

The 2012 business aviation industry has showed a weak performance. One small improvement was with active turbine corporate aircraft fleet which climbed to more than 29,000 compared to 28,300 in 2011, while the jet fleet has risen by a small 565 to 17,974.

One of the best areas to make improvements is the Asia-Pacific countries, The FlightGlobal Ascend online database shows that this fleet has risen by nearly 150 aircraft to 834 jests and 625 turboprops. The Chinese market shows an impressive fleet gain but China has not turned into the cash cow that was expected by some analysts. It has been suggested by Foley that China has provided “a conveniently timed mini-rescue”, for the aircraft industry. It has been good while it lasted but jet manufactures are now concentrating on preserving orders rather than being in sales mode.

According to Aboulafia a full recovery will only occur when the world’s economies finally stabilize at some time in the future and the jet fleet replacement cycle in the USA is in full swing. USA has the largest business aircraft fleet but the market is fragile.

In Europe the last 12 months have been disastrous with the number of business jet and turboprop fleet reducing by 30 aircraft. This is largely caused by the global recession that has continued to grip this region. Not surprisingly the worst hit countries in Europe are Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.