World Cup drives strong bizjet travel in Middle-East


The World Cup has driven an uptick in demand for business jet travel in the Middle East, according to a recent report by WINGX.

Business jet activity this week is 24% higher than the same time last year and is well above the year-to-date trend due to the World Cup in Qatar, said the data research and market intelligence consultant.

In the opening eight days of the tournament, from November 20th to 27th, the average daily arrivals into Qatar’s airports were up 302% compared with the average daily arrivals in the previous four weeks.

At the beginning of November, the average number of business jet arrivals were under five a day, but just before the kickoff of the World Cup, flights shot up to 35 a day on November 19th. Business jet arrivals reached their peak on the opening day of the tournament with around 44 inbound flights, tailing off to 25 arrivals on the 27th.

There are currently 28 business jets registered in Qatar, including four Bombardier Global 5000s, a Global 6000, an Embraer Legacy 650, 13 Gulfstream G650ERs and one G650, according to AMSTAT.

Elsewhere, strong demand remained, although the market was slightly cooler than this time last year. Globally in November there were around 400,000 business jet and turboprop flights, 1% below November 2021, but still 10% ahead of 2019.

In the US, demand over Thanksgiving fell short of last year’s record peak by 6%, although this is still 13% higher than November 2019. Teterboro was the busiest business jet airport in the US in November, with departures up 3% compared with last year.

Europe’s activity is down 17% since last year, although still 7% higher than 2019, with the UK as the busiest market. In Africa, business jet activity is 16% higher than last year, and in Asia activity is up 31%.

Arrivals into Fifa World Cup airports in Qatar, at a glance:

  • 24/10/2022 – 14 arrivals
  • 28/10/2022 – 4 arrivals
  • 01/11/2022 – 4 arrivals
  • 05/11/2022 – 7 arrivals
  • 09/11/2022 – 4 arrivals
  • 13/11/2022 – 5 arrivals
  • 15/11/2022 – 5 arrivals
  • 19/11/2022 – 35 arrivals
  • 20/11/2022 – 44 arrivals
  • 21/11/2022 – 38 arrivals
  • 23/11/2022 – 19 arrivals
  • 27/11/2022 25 arrivals
  
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