Business Aviation Index reveals 2017 was a Strong Year for Flight Activity

Good news for the business aviation industry, not to mention the American economy in general, was just released this month by the Jet Support Services, Inc. (JSSI), the leading provider of independent maintenance support and financial services to businesses in the aviation community. (Record Year-End for Business Aviation Flight Activity). The JSSI Business Aviation Index keeps track of all the global flight activity as well as the utilization of business aircraft worldwide (which includes jets, turboprops and helicopters), and issues quarterly reports on the average flight hours that have been tracked. In the Business Aviation Index provided by JSSI for the fourth quarter of 2017, they found that the average flight hours reported during this quarter were the highest averages in a decade.

What this means is that compared to other fourth quarter reports in previous years in which the flight hours typically dip around 4 percent, in the fourth quarter of 2017, the flight hours were down just 0.4 percent.

Why this is significant for business aviation

As opposed to commercial airlines which are dependent upon consumer spending trends, business aviation is a unique way businesses use transportation as a fundamental part of their operation and it doesn’t rely on the demands of the average consumer. This is why the Business Aviation Index tracks average the flight hours flown by each aircraft every month, and then organizes that data according to the different region, industry and aircraft cabin type being recorded. The data collected is then analyzed to infer further implications for global economic trends, meaning that this Index provides a reliable way of gauging important measures of our economy economy.

Key findings in the 2017 4Q report include:

• 65 hours was the average number of aircraft hours utilized in the fourth quarter, making the highest average recorded during a fourth quarter of any year on record.
• Within the 9 total industries included in the Index, there was a mixed assortment of results, including increases of more than 12 percent in the aviation, business services, and healthcare sectors.
• A total of seven key regions were tracked for this Index; the increase in average flight hours for the region of North America for the year to date was 3.6 percent.