Despite widespread adverse weather across much of North America, private jets still recorded a slight year-over-year increase.
According to ARGUS TRAQPak’s review of flight activity for this past month, private jets in North America recorded approximately 1.3% more flight activity than in the previous year.
Analysts had expected a 3.8% gain in January.
Much of North America suffered severe winter weather in January. However, January flight activity demand increased year over year.
From January 1st to January 22nd, private jet flight activity was up approximately 6.5% year-over-year, according to ARGUS analysts.
However, the winter storm and subsequent cold weather significantly impacted private jet flight activity. From January 23rd through the rest of the month, private jet flight activity in North America was down nearly 11% year-over-year.
ARGUS TRAQPak expects the private aviation market in North America to continue to grow.
Analysts currently forecast a 1.3% year-over-year increase for February 2026.
ARGUS Senior Vice President Travis Kuhn spoke with Private Jet Card Comparisons about the continued early success of the industry in 2026, which was later severely impacted by unfortunate weather.
Kuhn stated:
‘Overall activity for January looked good to start the year. We definitely saw some weather impacts across North America as activity for the first 22 days of the month was up 6.5% year over year but the last 9 days were down over 10%. We don’t see that as a negative moving forward and still see the indicators looking strong for 2026.’
After North American private jet flight activity posted an annual gain of about 3.5% in 2025, flight activity continued to grow in early 2026.
Overall, the smaller private jet classes showed the most growth in January, compared to January 2025.
The small-cabin and midsize jet markets each showed a year-over-year increase of just over 2%.
The large cabin segment, which has struggled in recent months, remained relatively flat in January. However, the segment recorded approximately 21 fewer flights than in January 2025.
Additionally, the turboprop segment showed an increase of just 0.2%.
Because the industry finished the year strong in December, flight activity was expected to take a small step back in January.
According to ARGUS analysts, private jets declined by about 7.4% month over month.
Almost every region in the United States saw a month-over-month drop. The largest monthly decrease occurred in the Eastern region, reporting a 20.9% decrease.
Several other regions reported double-digit decreases. However, the Western Pacific region recorded a 2.2% monthly increase in private jet flight activity.
Canadian flight activity also reported a monthly drop of about 5.1%. However, the Caribbean saw strong demand, with flights up 18.9%.
The fractional private jet segment showed the most year-over-year growth in January 2026, recording a 10.3% jump in total flights.
This was led largely by the turboprop segment, which recorded a 17.3% increase.
Additionally, the small cabin market also recorded a double-digit increase, posting 12.7% more flights year-over-year.
The large cabin jet segment also showed continued growth, recording just under 10% more flights than last year.
The smallest segment jump was in the midsize cabin jet market, which reported 8.9% more flights.
The Part 135 segment struggled in early 2026, recording a 0.9% decrease in total flights compared to January 2025.
The only positive segment in Part 135 operations was the turboprop segment, which recorded a 2.2% increase.
However, even the small cabin and midsize cabin segments struggled. These segments each posted a 1.6% and a 1.0% decrease, respectively.
The largest drop was in the large-cabin market, which saw 5.5% fewer flights.
The Part 91 business jet segment also struggled to gain traction in early 2026. Compared to January 2025, Part 91 operators saw 0.8% fewer flights in January 2026.
Even so, the largest gain in the class was recorded by the large cabin jet segment, posting a 2.5% yearly gain.
The small cabin segment also posted a small gain of about 0.2%.
However, midsize private jets struggled in Part 91 operations, flying 1.9% fewer flights.
Additionally, turboprop operations saw the largest year-over-year decrease, posting 2.4% fewer flights.
ARGUS expects full-year 2026 to beat 2025 by 1.9%.
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