Nigeria, Colombia, Serbia, Brazil lead private jet travel's Covid-19 winners and losers list

By Doug Gollan, August 26, 2020

Here’s how the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia, Mexico and other top business aviation markets performed during the coronavirus pandemic

An analysis of private aviation departures from WingX data by Private Jet Card Comparisons reveals a wide disparity in how COVID-19 impacted private jet travel on a country-by-country basis.

There was only one country that saw departures increase during the period and at the bottom of the list, 10 countries saw flying less than 50% of 2019 totals.

Looking at the 50 countries and territories with the most private aviation departures between March and July 2020, Nigeria’s private flights are at 103% of 2019 levels, up 3%.

Still, it was a bumpy ride powered by a 57% increase in flights during July. During the five months of data reviewed, Nigeria’s private aviation departures were ahead of 2019 levels in four months, although April departures dropped 73%.

Globally, private aviation flights were at 60% from March through July this year compared to the same period last year.

Colombia (95% of 2019 flight levels), Serbia (93%), Brazil (89%), Kazakhstan (83%), Australia (81%), Sweden (80%), U.S. Virgin Islands (77%), Norway (76%), Croatia (76%), South Africa (72%), and Turkey (70%) were the only other countries besides Nigeria where private flights remained within 70% of 2019 levels from March through July.

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Costa Rica (34% of last year’s levels), Mexico (35%), Bahamas (36%), St. Barth’s (38%), Italy (45%), Ireland (46%), Israel (48%), United Kingdom (48%), Dominican Republic (49%), and Saudi Arabia (49%) saw the biggest drops, with private aviation departures at less than 50% of 2019 levels.

Morocco, St. Maarten, Slovakia, Indonesia and Malaysia dropped off the list of the 50 largest markets in 2020.

Among the 10 countries with the most private aviation activity, the United States saw levels for the period at 61% of 2019 totals, Canada was at 63%, followed by France (56%), Mexico (35%), Australia (81%), U.K. (48%), Germany (68%), Italy (45%), Spain (55%), and Switzerland (61%).

In terms of those Top 10 private jet markets, Australia was the clear winner and sixth-best performer on a percentage basis in the Top 50. The U.S. finds itself smack in the middle, ranked 25th in terms of 2020 activity compared to 2019 (story continues below table).

50 Largest Private Aviation Markets in the World

Ranked by change in departures March to July 2020 vs. 2019

RankCountryMarch
April
May
June
July
Variance
to 2019
1Nigeria26.9%-73.3%13.9%4.3%56.5%103%
2Colombia4.6%-42.9%-24.6%10.2%24.1%95%
3Serbia-13.7%-63.0%-41.5%23.8%34.1%93%
4Brazil4.3%-52.5%-26.6%-9.1%28.8%89%
5Kazakhstan-1.2%-61.8%-11.3%-13.2%-0.4%83%
6Australia-21.2%-40.5%-23.8%-4.7%-2.2%81%
7Sweden-2.8%-29.2%-26.2%-23.5%-19.5%80%
8U.S. Virgin Islands-10.9%-69.5%-48.5%0.0%9.6%77%
9Norway-23.1%-33.2%-29.8%-25.0%-10.0%76%
10Croatia-32.2%-86.9%-65.7%-6.3%4.1%76%
11South Africa21.2%-79.3%-68.2%-15.4%-3.6%72%
12Turkey-45.1%-61.8%-46.4%-21.7%-4.5%70%
13Hungary-47.2%-74.2%-60.8%-31.9%38.3%68%
14Cyprus-3.4%-73.9%-72.7%-30.8%34.1%68%
15Germany-34.1%-64.2%-45.7%-18.7%-0.3%68%
16United Arab Emirates-18.8%-73.0%-49.4%-26.9%17.7%67%
17Japan-21.6%-48.4%-41.9%-24.1%-32.6%66%
18Russia-8.6%-70.0%-55.0%-35.4%-6.6%66%
19New Zealand-17.1%-77.3%-46.7%-22.2%-13.4%65%
20Czech Republic-36.6%-70.2%-63.7%-29.0%11.1%64%
21Poland-46.5%-70.2%-55.4%-26.3%5.7%63%
22Canada-14.7%-58.3%-49.4%-35.8%-25.8%63%
23Puerto Rico-16.8%-76.7%-57.9%-24.4%-4.6%63%
24Switzerland-33.0%-77.8%-62.5%-29.5%-0.5%61%
25United States-30.2%-69.5%-48.8%-25.1%-20.6%61%
26Finland-12.5%-57.3%-57.0%-37.3%-33.6%60%
27Austria-38.8%-78.7%-62.5%-32.3%7.0%60%
28Iceland-37.7%-48.6%-40.1%-41.9%-36.5%59%
29India-18.0%-89.8%-72.1%2.9%-4.1%59%
30Denmark-28.9%-61.0%-51.6%-45.2%-17.1%59%
31Ukraine-12.0%-82.3%-68.8%-51.7%-3.6%57%
32Belgium-40.1%-84.3%-70.9%-33.2%8.3%57%
33Romania-48.0%-71.2%-59.1%-26.8%-23.2%57%
34Portugal-12.6%-80.2%-69.8%-39.3%-14.6%56%
35France-43.1%-76.9%-63.3%-41.4%-10.0%56%
36Spain-20.9%-74.8%-73.0%-62.3%-1.7%55%
37Netherlands-36.1%-76.1%-64.6%-43.4%-5.4%54%
38China-66.1%-65.0%-52.6%-22.1%-13.8%54%
39Luxembourg-37.0%-79.9%-71.3%-36.9%-10.7%52%
40Greece-18.5%-70.3%-64.3%-67.4%-35.3%50%
41Saudi Arabia-38.5%-59.3%-64.1%-50.5%-38.6%49%
42Dominican Republic-27.5%-85.0%-71.5%-55.4%-4.7%49%
43United Kingdom-23.3%-76.3%-70.1%-60.5%-30.1%48%
44Israel-48.5%-66.9%-56.4%-58.5%-30.8%48%
45Ireland-16.6%-65.5%-70.5%-64.6%-43.4%46%
46Italy-70.1%-78.4%-76.8%-50.3%-29.0%45%
47Saint Barthalemy-34.7%-93.0%-84.4%-67.0%-34.0%38%
48Bahamas-41.2%-94.5%-88.6%-73.1%-14.4%36%
49Mexico-47.0%-86.0%-79.0%-60.8%-50.7%35%
50Costa Rica-8.7%-92.1%-84.7%-80.3%-81.0%34%
Source: WingX

In terms of trends within the period, Nigeria (up 57% in July), Hungary (+38%), Cyprus (+34%), Serbia (+34%), Brazil (+29%), Colombia (+24%), United Arab Emirates (+18%), and Czech Republic (+10%) saw the biggest gains last month compared to the same month for 2019.

Looking at countries with the biggest swings from June to July this year, Hungary went from down 32% in June year-over-year to up by 38% in July, a jump of 70 percentage points. Cyprus saw a +65 point gain, while Spain (+61 points), Bahamas (+59), Nigeria (+52), Dominican Republic (+51), Ukraine (+48), UAE (+45), and Belgium (+42) all realized the biggest improvements.

The WingX data is based on departures between March and July from 2019 and 2020. It covers all sizes of private jets and turboprops.

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