Continued Growth in Private Jet Flights in 2026

The number of business jet flights has continued to grow in 2026, with data from WINGX showing 1.95 million worldwide departures in the first six months of 2026, this was up 4% on departures in the first half of 2025. The detailed analysis also looks at which parts of the world are seeing the most growth and which types of operators are growing.

Which Regions Are Seeing the Most Growth?

The global regions seeing the most growth in business jet activity are North America, with departures up 5.0%, and Latin America, with growth of 4.6% in the first half of 2026. All other regions also grew, except for the Middle East, which declined 17.8%, reflecting the impact of the US-Israel-Iran conflict. The departure details by region are shown in the table below. North America, with 1,403,700 departures, is by far the largest market, representing almost 72% of all flights. Europe, with 270,800 departures, is the second largest market, with 13.9% of the global share.

Which Jet Operator Types Are Growing?

Fractional jet ownership continues to be one of the fastest-growing operator types, with global departures up 11.5% in the first half of 2026. With 396,600 departures, fractional represents 20.3% of all departures globally. The two biggest fractional operators, NetJets and Flexjet, saw departure growth of 11.8% and 11.0%, respectively, in this period.

For some perspective on their scale, NetJets had 266,500 flights in the first 6 months of 2026, representing 13.6% of all business jet departures globally. Flexjet had 97,500 flights, representing 5.0% of all business jet departures in this period. Both NetJets and Flexjet have continued to grow their fleets, and both have added new aircraft types, most recently with NetJets adding the Global 8000 and Citation Ascend and Flexjet adding the Gulfstream G500.

The private flight departments, operating aircraft on behalf of specific owners, are also benefiting from global UHNW (Ultra-High Net Worth) population growth. This population continues to feed a steady pipeline of first-time business jet owners establishing dedicated flight departments. In the first six months of 2026, this group produced 12.4% growth in the number of departures.

Aircraft management operators, who mainly manage aircraft on behalf of private owners, remain the largest single operator type, flying 423,300 departures globally in the first half of 2026, representing 21.7% of all business jet activity. This sector grew at just 1.9% in the first six months of 2026.

Branded charter, operators who are primarily focused on chartering including jet card type programs, has softened in 2026, down 3.1% YTD, potentially reflecting some demand displacement toward fractional operators.

Corporate flight departments, those flight departments operating a fleet for a specific corporation, remain under pressure, contracting 8.9% YTD, indicating ongoing cost discipline and fleet rationalization among corporate operators and potentially some movement to fractional.

The breakdown is shown in the chart below, courtesy of WINGX (note this table excludes smaller operator types including Government / Military, Ambulance / Medical, Cargo / Logistics, OEM, and Training.)