Business jet flights show sharp drop in Europe

GENEVA, May 11 - Business aviation flights have shown a sharp drop of nearly 20 percent across Europe over the first quarter of this year as companies cut back on costs to fight recession, according to figures issued on Monday.

Eurocontrol, the European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation which tracks aircraft movements from and across the continent, said traffic recovery in the long booming category was unlikely until the spring of 2010.

The drop echoed similar falls in the commercial airline and cargo-carrying sector which worldwide has been suffering from a decline in world trade shrinks cargo while the demand for mass passenger travel has also been drying up.

Business aviation -- which includes flight operators, taxi firms and companies operating their own aircraft as well as plane makers, airports and maintenance firms -- accounts for some 8 percent of air traffic movements in Europe.

The European Business Aviation Association says overall the sector -- whose planes in Europe are almost entirely owned by firms and governments and only 3 percent by individuals -- contributes some 20 billion euros, or 0.2 percent of GDP, to the European economy, and provides jobs for some 164,000 people.

The Brussels-based Eurocontrol released the statistics in Geneva on the eve of the annual European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (EBACE), at which aircraft makers, flight operators and their suppliers parade their wares.

But while industry officials in Geneva for the 2-day EBACE agreed the atmosphere was downbeat after years in which business aviation saw annual growth of some 10 percent, they argued that the medium-term outlook was good for the industry.

"This is an industry that is growing, an industry that is in demand," said Brian Humphries, president and chief executive officer of the EBAA which organises EBACE.

"We are going through a downturn but we have great potential ahead, and that it what we have to work on," he told a news conference with Eurocontrol and the International Aircraft Owners' and Pilots' Association, another industry body.

Among companies exhibiting at EBACE are Canada's Bombardier , Brazil's Embraer, Boeing Business Jets division, and Airbus, as well as airport groupings, navigation equipment providers and the aviation industry's main publications and journals.

Officials say the presence at EBACE 2009 of a wide range of companies across the industry shows continuing confidence, although they agree that its image even in Europe could have been affected by scandals in the United States over the use of high-luxury plans by executives of failing companies.

"The difference is that in Europe we come from a slightly different perspective, in that we have tended to use business aircraft modestly with little of the ostentation that has been seen across the Atlantic," he added.