Domestic and international business jet operations continued to ramp up in 2011 as part of an ongoing upward trajectory that began in early 2009, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration's enhanced traffic management system count database.
As of the end of November, the FAA counted 3.6 million business jet operations for the calendar year, comprising 3 million domestic and 600,000 foreign operations.
This tally would appear to be on track to break the 2010 yearly total of 3.8 million operations by about 3% if December figures follow trends from previous months. The December 2010 to November 2011 operations total was up more than 4% compared with the previous year tally.
The top three business aircraft models in terms of usage since December 2010 were the Cessna Citation XLS family, with more than 320,000 operations through the end of November, followed by the Hawker 750/850/900 series at nearly 300,000 operations, and the Cessna Citation Ultra/Encore line.
Teterboro airport, near New York city, continued to be the top US airport for business jet activity, with more than 123,000 operations in the same period, followed by nearby Westchester County, at 60,000 operations, and Dulles international, at 57,000 operations.
Source: Flight International
