These Were the Top Ten Countries for European Business Aviation Activity in 2022, EBAA 2022 Yearbook

Last year, Europe’s business aviation sector had grown by 12.9% over 2021 and was responsible for € 9,9 billion in economic output, supporting 449,000 jobs both directly and indirectly.

Across Europe, there were 1,496 airports with business aviation traffic, an increase of 52 airports compared to 2019 (1,444). There were 81,159 unique airport pairs with business aviation flights between them, an 11% increase over 2019 (73,216). There were 4,056 aircraft based in Europe last year and 3,343 registered aircraft.

Commercial business aviation comprised the largest share (57.4%) of activity, with non-commercial flights accounting for 29%, Medical and special flights contributing 9.2%, and government/military traffic contributing 4.4%

The bulk of flight activity (58.9%) was intra-European, while 35.9% was domestic traffic, with the point of origin and destination in the same country. Only 5.3% of all traffic was extra-European.

Peak activity occurred in July last year, with 186,183 aircraft movements, well above the 167,338 in July 2021 and 129,185 in July 2020.

The top ten countries for European business aviation traffic in 2022, reflecting growth over 2019 across the board, were:

EBAA’s Yearbook also reveals the Intercontinental connections with the highest growth rates in 2022 (compared to 2019):

While the trend hints at softening demand for business aviation activity at the beginning of this year, the gains over 2019 should hold. Many have switched to business aviation, attracted by the greater comfort, flexibility, and freedom of flying private, and they won’t soon go back.