North American private jet flight activity was down 3.5% in May compared to 2022.
Argus had forecasted a decline of 2.4% for the month.
“The overall market continues to show signs of stabilized cooling from the highs in 2021 and 2022. We expected that our yearly declines would narrow in May, and that is what happened, and we expect to see more of that trend going forward,” said Argus SVP Travis Kuhn.
He added, “Absent some significant factor, we foresee the market holding level to slightly positive during the remaining months of 2023. The Part 135 segment will continue to be a segment to monitor going forward.”
The results by operational category were mixed for the month, with Fractional activity again recording the only yearly increase, up 4.3% from May 2022.
The Part 91 market reported gains in smaller cabin activity but still finished down 0.9% from the prior year.
Part 135 activity finished down 9.5% year over year.
The aircraft categories were all negative this month, with midsize cabin jets posting the largest decline, down 6.4%.
Turboprops and small cabin jets each posted a yearly decline of 2.2% from May 2022, and large cabin jets finished down 1.7%.
There were six individual segments that reported year-over-year increases, with all four Fractional segments reporting yearly gains.
The largest increase was recorded in the Fractional turboprop market, up 15.7% year over year.
Looking ahead, Argus expects June North American flights to be down 0.7%.
In its annual forecast, Argus had projected a 0.1% increase year-over-year for this month.
