Cirium: More than half of the world’s passenger jets are now in service

More than half (51%) of the world’s passenger jets are now in service according to Cirium’s latest fleet data update. Today’s milestone marks the first time for nearly three months that the proportion of stored aircraft has been below 50%, after this key threshold was originally exceeded in late-March as operators moved to park large numbers of aircraft in the face of collapsing demand.

The impact of the coronavirus crisis peaked in mid-April when we reported nearly two thirds of global passenger jets as stored. Yesterday’s figure was 48.5%, with nearly 13,500 aircraft active and just over 12,700 stored.

However tracked flights by widebodies, narrowbodies and regional jets remain down more than 70% compared with last year, while flight hours are down more than three quarters, highlighting that those aircraft that are in service are being utilised at significantly lower rates than normal. The rolling seven-day average daily flight hours per aircraft figure is at just over six, compared with more than nine in early January.

Cirium, a data and analytics travel company. https://www.cirium.com