McKinsey's new report on business aviation, published October 19, puts numbers on a shift many of us have felt for years. Business jet departures hit a record 3.9 million in 2025, and total flight hours were up 37% from 2019. In the US, leisure airfields accounted for 78% of the 417,000 added departures since 2019, with places like Witham Field, Naples and Scottsdale growing far faster than Teterboro. Meanwhile, deliveries reached only 842 jets in 2025, about 65% of the 2008 peak, and the fleet is growing mainly because owners are retiring fewer aircraft.
The report's central point matches what I see: the scarce resource has moved from airplanes to everything around them. Hangars, ramp space, crews and maintenance slots at leisure airports were never sized for this traffic. A jet is only useful if it can land, park and be turned around on the day the client wants to fly.
The ownership mix tells the same story. Fractional programs grew from 14% to 20% of flight hours, while corporate and private flying slipped from 36% to 30%. Charter held roughly steady at 18%, but eight operators now run fleets of more than 50 aircraft. Clients want access without the full cost of owning, and that cost has risen sharply since the pandemic.
At Melion, this is the problem we spend our time on. With an older fleet and tight infrastructure, the best value usually comes from matching a trip to the right operator and aircraft already near the departure airport, not from the biggest cabin available. McKinsey notes that 65% of US ultra-long-range flights last year were under 1,000 nautical miles. Better matching can close a lot of that gap, and it is where a transparent marketplace earns its place.