Tuesday 21 May 2019 6:36 pm | Updated: Wednesday 05 June 2019 8:33 am

Private jet departures from UK take a four per cent knock in April

Private jet departures from the UK took a downward turn last month, as the number of aircraft registered in Europe fell.

The number of business aircraft departures in the UK fell last month by 4.1 per cent on the previous year, compared with 3.1 per cent for Europe as a whole.

London-based Colibri Aircraft, which specialises in the marketing, resale and purchase of pre-owned private jets, attributes the slump to the fact that registrations in Europe have been falling. There was a 4.6 per cent drop from January 2018 to January this year, Colibri found.

Meanwhile, growth in private jet flights in the UK is down by nearly two per cent on last year.

Oliver Stone, Managing Director, Colibri Aircraft said: “Increased demand for pre-owned jets from the large USA market has led to a rise in the number of aircraft going from Europe to the USA, reducing the fleet of European aircraft. This smaller fleet leads to a reduction in the number of flights occurring.”

Last month London's business aviation market was down 5.5 per cent on last year, which one airport boss blamed on the uncertainty around Brexit.

Robert Walters, business development director at London Biggin Hill Airport, said "the number one message" he was receiving from customers was that they needed to fly in and out of the capital less due to Britain's ongoing indecision as to when and how it is going to leave the EU.