Flight Friday: Which Aircraft Classes Are Thriving In Europe?

With the Paris Air Show opening June 19, this week’s Flight Friday looks at European flight cycles by aircraft class (Widebody, Narrowbody, Regional Jets and Regional Turboprops) and how they compare with the equivalent month in 2019.

May 2023 was the first time that any aircraft class in Europe—regional turboprop—reached and exceeded the equivalent month in 2019. The regional turboprops are at nearly 102% utilization when compared to May 2019. This is helped, in part, by the number of reassignments of aircraft previously on lease with Flybe (both versions) and airBaltic that are now again contributing to the flight utilization numbers.

Narrowbody jets are currently in second place, at nearly 95% of equivalent 2019 flight cycles. With Europe heading to the peak summer season, we anticipate that the equivalent 2023 month should surpass 2019 levels for a few of these months, as Europeans make the most of their summer holidays.

Widebody utilization is a little under 90%. With demand on the rise for these aircraft we anticipate this will continue to grow, but probably not to 2019 levels during the course of 2023.

The regional jets class, globally, is a market that is waning. With a boom of builds in the 1990s and 2000s, these aircraft are coming up to retirement ages and/or expensive heavy checks. Europe is also affected by this, with utilization below 80% of 2019 levels.