Positive signs aplenty for business aviation

Honeywell Aerospace helped set the tone October 13, releasing its thirty-fourth annual Global Business Aviation Outlook, predicting both short-term and long-term growth in business jet sales and utilization. Among the business aircraft operators surveyed, 91 percent expect to fly the same or more hours in 2026, and 90 percent rate "performance" among their top three most important criteria, up from 82 percent in the 2024 survey. The "cost" of business aviation remains a distant second in the 2025 survey—56 percent—down from 60 percent who rated that among their top three considerations.

Bombardier just so happened to have the world's fastest business jet on hand to show off, announcing that the Global 8000 goes even faster than originally projected prior to its first flight, with a maximum level-flight speed of Mach 0.95—about 6 knots faster (at 35,000 feet and above) than the Mach 0.94 projected when the new model was announced in 2022. The Global 8000 made its first flight in May, and is projected to enter service by the end of the year.

“This accomplishment for Bombardier is reflective of the remarkable expertise of every employee that has worked on the development of this industry-leading business jet,” said Bombardier President and CEO Éric Martel, in a news release issued in conjunction with his appearance at NBAA-BACE. “Our customers will now be able to reach their destinations even faster, arriving refreshed and ready to carry out their desired missions.”

Waiting in the wings, Colorado startup Boom Supersonic, which hopes to begin flight testing its full-scale, quiet-supersonic Overture airliner in 2027, dangled the possibility of producing a business jet variant once Overture is in service, if another aircraft maker doesn't license the technology first, Airguide reported.

Fast jets with large cabins and long legs may be the apex of the species, but usage data and operator surveys show that midsize and super-midsize jets are driving much of the demand for fractional ownership. Kevin Schwab, strategic planning manager for Honeywell Aerospace, presented the annual forecast October 13, and explained why fractional ownership has gained traction, with 12 percent of operators who own an aircraft outright reporting that they also own fractional shares in additional airframes, and another 15 percent considering fractional purchases.

"About half of them say they're doing it to increase their overall flight capacity. So, they want to fly more and for whatever reason they're not doing that on their own aircraft. And so they have the flexibility to schedule a fractional flight in order to increase their overall level of flying," Schwab said. "This makes a lot of sense for companies who have travel needs for a lot of people, like multiple executives. If you're flying your CEO on your one jet that you own and you need a VP to go somewhere else, well this is exactly where this can come in and increase your overall level of flying in business aviation rather than putting them on commercial and rather than purchasing a whole other aircraft."

Honeywell's survey found that fractional fleets have grown 65 percent since 2019, and that light, midsize, and super-midsize jets comprise 80 percent of the fractional fleet.

The International Monetary Fund posted a slight increase in its 2025 global growth forecast on October 14, noting the impact of tariffs has been less significant than expected, though the prospect of a renewed U.S.-China trade war loomed. While Swiss business aircraft maker Pilatus announced a temporary suspension of sales in the United States in August, citing tariffs, the word does not appear in the Honeywell press release. Another U.S. economic policy, the resumption of 100 percent bonus depreciation, which allows owners to deduct all of an asset's projected lifetime depreciation in the first year, is credited with driving interest in aircraft purchases.

Honeywell's findings align well with recent use data compiled by WingX, which reported a surge in business jet activity "we have not seen since the pent-up demand during the pandemic." While the 75,651 global departures logged between September 29 to October 5 were down 5 percent from the prior week, the total was 5 percent higher than the same week in 2024. The four-week rolling total climbed to 314,000 departures, up 8 percent compared to the same period in 2024. Argus Analytics reported similar findings, and September used business jet prices reported October 6 by Sandhills Global indicated a transition toward level following recent declines, while used turboprop prices continued to climb, along with piston single-engine aircraft prices. Sandhills owns various aviation marketplaces including Controller.com, and compiles asking price data on a monthly basis.

With used jet inventories trending sideways, Textron Aviation brought its forthcoming midsize Citation Ascend to the show, making its NBAA-BACE debut a month after rolling the first production unit out of the factory in Wichita, Kansas. The Ascend was on display at Henderson Executive Airport, along with its Cessna siblings, the super-midsize Citation Longitude, the midsize Citation Latitude, the Cessna Citation CJ4 Gen2, and a mockup of the CJ3 Gen 3. Textron announced FAA certification of the CJ3 Gen2 and the Citation M2 Gen2 models, both with Garmin Autothrottle systems.

AOPA Editor in Chief Kollin Stagnito and Editor Ian Wilder contributed to this report.