The 2025 Business Aviation Market: What the Numbers Say - and What They Don’t

Business jet activity is up. More planes are being bought and sold. Manufacturers have record order books. But not everything is moving in the same direction 

Richard Koe & Nick Koscinski · WINGX Research ·  5 min read

Every year, the JETNET IQ Market Monitor combines two data sets that rarely appear in the same analysis. JETNET’s asset-side intelligence - transactions, inventory, pricing, days on market - sits alongside WINGX global flight activity data covering 3.89 million departures tracked via ATC and ADS-B through December 2025.

The result is a market view that neither source produces alone. The question is not whether the numbers look healthy. Most of them do. The question is what the numbers are actually telling you - and whether the signals you’re tracking are the right ones.

Four findings stand out from this year’s data. Each one points toward something that doesn’t show up in a headline figure.

Four Findings That Change How You Read This Market

The full data set runs to 62 pages. These four findings are the ones that tend to shift how professionals read the market - not because the numbers are surprising, but because of what they suggest when you put them alongside each other.

FINDING 01

Activity rebounded  -  but not evenly across operator types

 +4.5% global departures YOY · 3.89M total 

Global departures grew 4.5% in 2024-25, which looks like a clean recovery story. It isn’t. Underneath the top-line growth, one of the most established operator segments has now contracted for two consecutive years - while two others posted double-digit growth. The split matters because it tells you where demand is actually coming from, and where it isn’t.

• Fractional ownership grew 9.3% YOY following 11.0% growth the year before - two years of accelerating momentum that few segments can match
• Private flight departments surged 12.5%, the strongest growth rate of any operator category in 2025
• One major operator category declined for the second straight year. The report breaks down which one, by how much, and what the utilization data suggests is driving it

FINDING 02

Pre-owned transactions surged - but not where most people were looking. 

 $19.23B total pre-owned transaction value  ·  up 8% from 2024

The 11.7% rebound in pre-owned transactions was real. But the cabin class breakdown tells a different story than the one circulating in the market. The segment that led transaction growth is also the one with the strongest six-year utilization CAGR - and when you overlay the operator-type data, the reason becomes clear. The full picture is in the report.

• One cabin class posted +14.5% transaction growth YOY - the strongest of any segment, and it wasn’t the one most dealers were prioritizing
• The correlation between departure growth and transaction volume by cabin class is tighter than most market participants realize - the report maps it in full
• Large cabin values are still 37% above 2019 asking prices. Whether that premium holds through 2026 depends on a supply dynamic the report covers in the inventory section

"The cabin class that led transaction growth is also the one with the strongest six-year utilization CAGR. The overlap is not a coincidence.” 

FINDING 03

The fast-close window is closing. But not for every aircraft.

 $95 avg days on market  ·  up 11.9% from 85 in 2024

The pre-owned market is normalizing after two years of historically compressed marketing periods. Average days on market rose nearly 12% in 2025. But the aggregate number conceals a split that is more important than the trend itself - one segment of the market is still moving faster than it did pre-pandemic, while another is sitting significantly longer.

• The newest aircraft (0-5 years) are still selling faster than 2019 norms. Days on market in that band actually fell YOY
• Mid-age and older aircraft are extending rapidly - some age bands saw marketing periods grow 18-20% in a single year
• 70% of for-sale inventory is now 16+ years old. The age-band breakdown in the report shows exactly where the liquidity is - and where it isn’t

FINDING 04

The macro backdrop looks supportive. Two indicators are worth watching closely.

UHNWI population: 0.84 correlation with global departures

The two strongest macro correlates to business aviation demand both ended 2025 in positive territory. That’s the good news. The report also maps the indicators that have historically preceded demand softness - and two of them are showing patterns worth monitoring heading into 2026.

• Global UHNWI population hit a record 684,000 in 2025 - up from 658,000 the year before and projected to grow at a 5.5% CAGR through 2028
• US corporate profits remain nearly 2x pre-pandemic levels, with a 0.83 correlation to US departures - the second-strongest macro signal in the dataset
• The report includes a full macro-to-bizav correlation framework - mapping GDP, equities, M&A, IPO activity, interest rates, and UHNWI wealth against departure and transaction trends

THE MONITOR FLAGGED IT. THE MARKET FELT IT.

Iran Crisis: Implications for Business Aviation

The 2025 data showed Middle East business jet activity growing 7.7% year-over-year  -  one of the strongest regional growth rates in the report. Then the Iran crisis hit in March 2026, and WINGX data recorded a 50%+ decline in Middle East business jet activity within three weeks.

Richard Koe (WINGX), Sheila Kahyaoglu (Jefferies), Al Whyte (Corporate Jet Investor), and Bernhard Fragner (GlobeAir) broke down the operational, financial, and market implications live on March 20, 2026  -  covering flight activity collapse, fuel price shocks, airline estimate cuts, operator repositioning, and what it means for OEM deliveries.

JETNET WEBINAR SERIES · Mar 20, 2026

▶ Watch the Webinar Recap - contact richard.koe@wingx-advance.com to request access to the slides. 

The Full Report Goes Considerably Further

Those four findings are a starting point. The full report covers which manufacturers have the strongest order books and what that signals, how prices have moved by aircraft type since 2019, which routes and operators are the most active, how long jets typically remain in service, and a detailed regional breakdown of where business aviation is growing and where it is slowing.

It is free to download and takes around an hour to read properly. If anything in this article raised a question, the answer is likely in there.

FREE DOWNLOAD  -  FULL REPORT

Get all 62 pages - the complete 2025 Market Monitor

 Get the complete 2025 Market Monitor

62 pages of structured analysis combining JETNET transaction and inventory data with WINGX global flight activity intelligence - covering macro climate, aircraft activity, market transactions, and inventory dynamics through December 2025.

Built for people who work with aircraft data every day.

• 62 pages, data through December 2025

• Sections: Macro Climate, Aircraft Activity, Aircraft Market, Aircraft Inventory

• Sources: JETNET, WINGX, IMF, FRED, Knight Frank, OEM filings

• Includes: OEM backlog, operator rankings, corridor data, fleet utilization, pricing trends