Business Jet Activity Above Historic LevelsFrom CIBC Airline's trafic monitor
March saw a daily average of 9,482 global business jet flights, up ~19% from February’s average of 7,974 flights. Total global business jet flights were up 49% Y/Y and up 20% from 2019 levels. Turning to the U.S., which is the largest business jet market, daily average business jet flights were 7,134, up 20% from February’s daily average of 5,959. U.S. March total business jet flights were up 54% Y/Y and up 25% compared to 2019.
We continue to expect that business jet activity will remain resilient. Pandemic-driven health concerns around travelling commercially have expanded private jet operators’ customer bases, while the contraction in commercial aviation networks will continue to be a tailwind for air charter operators. Looking at web traffic activity of a sample of air charter operators reinforces this positive momentum. Web traffic continues to trend above historical levels, reflecting increased interest in private flying. Vistajet recently announced it planned to grow its fleet to over 90 aircraft over the next two years. The company note this fleet expansion reflects the surge of demand from customers looking for safer and more reliable way to fly. We do not expect this interest to change in the near term, not at least until we see a wider distribution of the vaccine and a meaningful recovery of commercial airline capacity
Very positive for us. We can expect a positive Book/ Sell ratio at the Q1 results.
My expectation: Bombardier could revise upward before the year end its production rate over the actual projected 100-120 deliveries per year.