Business aviation flight activity in North America “sizzled” last month, recording a 5.2 percent year-over-year increase, according to TrakPak data released today by Argus International. This is the largest month operations-wise since May 2008 and shattered the business aviation data firm’s 3.3 percent growth forecast for August; it is predicting 3.2 percent this month.

Last month's results were fueled by a 10.9 percent year-over-year increase in Part 135 charter activity. Part 91K fractional flying also posted a solid 7 percent gain and, for the first time in several months, Part 91 activity was in the black, rising 0.9 percent.

Large-cabin jet activity continued to dominate the aircraft categories, climbing 7.2 percent year-over-year in August. This was followed by light jets, up 5.5 percent; midsize jets, up 4.8 percent; and turboprops, up 4.5 percent.

In individual categories, the Part 135 segment nearly had across-the-board double-digit gains, with the exception of light jets under this catergory, which rose 9.1 percent from a year ago. Part 135 turboprop, midsize jet and large-cabin jet flying soared 11.3 percent, 11.4 percent and 12.6 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, fractional light jet activity rose 17 percent year-over-year. Only Part 91 light jets recorded a slight loss, falling 0.2 percent.

Argus’s TraqPak data provides “flight-number-specific aircraft arrival and departure information on all IFR flights in the U.S., Canada and the Caribbean.”

The pre-owned business jet inventory is at its lowest rate in nearly a decade, according to data presented this morning at the seventh-annual JetNet IQ Summit in New York City. According to Paul Cardarelli, the Utica, N.Y. data provider’s vice president of sales, of the 21,870 aircraft worldwide, 2,285 are currently on the market. That equates to 10.5 percent, a level not seen since November 2007.

Rolland Vincent, founder and director of JetNet IQ, presented results from its third-quarter industry survey, noting that nearly half of the respondents believe the business aviation market is past the low point in this recent cycle, with Europe showing the most optimism at more than 53 percent. Among aircraft operators, those with midsize jets showed the most optimism (56 percent), while large jet operators were the most pessimistic, with 47.5 percent stating they believe the industry is climbing out of the trough. According to the survey, overall optimism is rebounding from a year ago, during the height of the contentious U.S. presidential election.

Likewise, the percentage of survey respondents who indicated a better than 60 percent probability of purchasing a new jet over the next year was the highest in the past two years. Of these, 57 percent indicated interest in medium jets, while nearly 40 percent said they would want a large-cabin jet.

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Business and general aviation manufacturers reported another quarter of mixed results with the total number of piston, turboprop and business jet deliveries in the second quarter of 2017 edging up 2.6 percent, while billings suffered a 1.2. percent decline, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. GAMA today released the second quarter shipment results, reporting 561 total fixed-wing shipments in the three months ended June 30, compared with 547 shipments in the same period of 2016. Total billings for fixed-wing aircraft in the second quarter of 2017, meanwhile, inched down to $5.311 billion. This compares with $5.376 billion a year earlier.  (GAMA plans to release helicopter results in a separate report.)

For the first half, total deliveries similarly were up 2.7 percent to 995 units, while billings softened 3.4 percent to $9 billion. Despite five fewer shipments in the second quarter, business jet shipments rose 1 percent, to 295, in the first half.

Meanwhile, deliveries of pressurized turboprops fell 9.6 percent year-over-year in the first half, to 104 aircraft. Notably, King Air deliveries plummeted 58.1 percent in the first six months, to 31 units, while Pilatus PC-12 shipments sunk 22.5 percent, to 31 aircraft. But turboprop deliveries at Piper soared 87.5 percent in the first half as it ramped up M600 production. Shipments at Daher also climbed 27.8 percent in the period, to 23.

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