By: Chad Trautvetter
After climbing to its highest level since 2008 in October, business aircraft activity “cooled down” last month, according to TraqPak data released yesterday by aviation services company Argus. Overall, flying in this segment fell 2 percent year-over-year.
Continuing the trend seen throughout this year, the Part 135 charter sector once again was the only operational category to post a gain in flying activity, increasing by 3.7 percent versus a year ago. Part 91 activity skidded by 4.3 percent, while fractional flying-still reeling from Avantair’s demise-fell by 5.4 percent last month.
By aircraft category, large-cabin flying posted the only gain, climbing 5.3 percent year-over-year. Light jet activity remained flat from November 2012, while midsize jet and turboprop activity decreased by 2.3 percent and 6 percent, respectively.
The fractional large-cabin jet segment logged the only double-digit gain, climbing 15.7 percent from a year ago. Part 91 large-cabin jet flying saw the next-largest increase, rising 8.6 percent. Paradoxically, large-cabin Part 135 activity decreased by 5.2 percent.
Meanwhile, fractional turboprop flying dropped by 38.2 percent, attributable to Avantair’s closure. The beating that this individual market took over the past year should now be over, as Avantair had no flight activity during its three-week grounding late last year, and its flying activity between the restart and shutdown in early June was anemic at best.
Argus TraqPak data provides “serial-number-specific aircraft arrival and departure information on all IFR flights in the U.S. and Canada.”
