Monterey, California
March 11, 2021
In the hour that I have been sitting at my campsite, four private jets have come overhead as they land at the Monterey airport. Got me thinking about the issues that Chuck raised — ones that were similar to those raised by my friend Ken. So I Googled “how many private jets are there in the US” and found this article from www.statistica.com. The data is for 2019. The article seems to include turboprops in some places but I got an answer that surprised me - there are many more than I thought. Thanks to Congress the purchase of a plane is 100 percent deductible in the year purchased. That makes no sense. And most people flying these things don’t care about the cost of flying (I mean versus a commercial flight).
How do you dissuade people from using private aircraft if the cost is not an issue?
Here’s the article I found:
The business aviation market consists in the use of any general aviation aircraft for a business purpose. A business aircraft is one designed for transporting small groups of business people for commercial reasons at a time convenient to their needs. Business aircraft may be adapted for other roles such as, evacuation of casualties or express parcel deliveries, and are also used by public bodies, government officials or by the military.
Starting in France around the 1950s, firms and government regulations supported the development of the business aviation industry further. Given the increasing economic coordination in the aftermath of 1950s, the need for high productivity of entrepreneurs to facilitate business success became more crucial. The opportunity to travel to places not served by commercial aviation made business aviation more appealing as firms expanded their operations. The United States has by far the largest market in the world, with almost 21,900 business aircraft in 2019. By contrast, in that year there were 4,159 business aircraft in all of Europe.
State of the U.S. business aviation market In 2019, the size of the charter market in the U.S. fluctuated around 30 billion U.S. dollars. The U.S. business aviation industry experienced an expanding trend in its fleet capacity in the last years, with the total fleet size increasing from 19,894 in 2015 to 21,888 aircraft in 2019. In that same year, business aircraft operatorsflew a total of 1.56 million hours in the United States. Since business aviation offers more flexibility, time saving and enlarged possible reach, the demand for rapid air travel is expected to grow. One could observe this overall expansion in the growth of individual business aviation firms. Annual revenue of industry-leader Gama Aviation increased Aviation increased continuously since 2016, reaching 246.8 million U.S. dollars in 2019. Business aircraft manufacturers
The business aviation is a very niche market that consists of companies of all sizes that rely on many different types of aircraft — from single-pilot airplane to turbine aircraft — that fly internationally, to helicopters that survey rush-hour traffic. Jet and turboprops are two main types of aircraft in the U.S. business aviation. During 2019, there were over 13,000 jet aircraft registered in the U.S. Some of the biggest manufacturers of business aircraft include: Bombardier, Cessna, Dassault, Gulfstream, and Embraer.
