Europe is home to several of the world's largest economies and, as such, boasted a dense network of air connections with countless options for both intra-European and intercontinental flights until the beginning of 2020. The arrival of SARS-CoV-2 has led to countless mobility restrictions and frequent airspace closures. Travel bans have led to a dramatic decline and, in many cases, the disappearance of several of the previously available air links. The consequences for the economy of the area in general, and specifically for the airlines and the air transport industry, are yet to be determined, but they will clearly have a very negative impact. This may lead to the bankruptcy of many companies, especially those that make up the tourism industry in general, leading to a pessimistic future, especially as far as air transport is concerned.

As for the private aviation model, Europe ranks second in the world in terms of size, and the 513,045 flights of this category represent 14.26% of the total number of departures registered in the world throughout 2020. This represents a fall of -23.8% compared to the data for 2019. This moderate drop compared to what happened with commercial aviation is particularly remarkable considering the short duration of the periods with actual freedom of movement on the continent since mid-March last year.

The reduction among the main European players shows however mixed results, with barely perceptible drops of -5.5% in Croatia to the maximum -34.6% drop recorded for departures from the UK. And there are even countries with growth compared to 2019, such as Latvia +64.6%, Lithuania +39.9%, Cyprus +3.9% and Serbia 1.6%.

France ranks first in terms of private jet departures in 2020 and represents 16.93% of the total volume of movements on the continent, with a fall of -26.9%. Germany is in second place with 14% of total departures and a fall of -18.7%. Finally, the United Kingdom is in third place with 12.22% of departures, but with the steepest fall on the continent as mentioned above.

The vast majority of the departures registered in 2020 have a destination within the European continent itself, with local traffic almost always reaching values above 90% of the total number of departures in each country. The development of this type of traffic shows a very similar evolution to that detected in the total number of departures.

Articles in this series: 

Private Aviation in 2020. Introduction

Worldwide Private Aviation in 2020. Part 1

Worldwide Private Aviation in 2020. Part 2

Private Aviation in 2020 in Europe. Part 1

Private Aviation in 2020 in Europe. Part 2

Private Aviation in 2020 in Europe. Part 3

Private Aviation in 2020 in Spain. Part 1

Private Aviation in 2020 in Spain. Part 2

Coming soon:

Private Aviation in 2020 in Spain. Part 3

Private Aviation in 2020 in Spain. Part 4

Private Aviation in 2020 in Spain. Part 5

Private Aviation in 2020 in Spain. Part 6

Private Aviation in 2020 in Spain. Part 7