Top 10 Business-Aviation Destinations in Europe

France’s second-busiest commercial airport—over 14 million passengers in 2019—continues to be popular for business aviation. The airport saw 6,065 business departures between March 1 and Aug. 31, a decline of 42.4% on 2019 numbers. Due to its proximity to Monaco, it is the principality’s de facto airport and there are three companies offering helicopter shuttle services from adjacent to the FBO. In a 2018 survey, customers of UK broker PrivateFly voted its approach the third most picturesque in the world.

The 35.9% year-on-year decline in bizjet movements at Geneva includes all those aircraft that usually fly in for EBACE, Europe’s biggest business aviation conference. It was one of the many events to fall victim to the pandemic this year. Nevertheless, 5,277 business aircraft departed the Swiss airport from March through August. Lower traffic did not deter Signature Flight Support’s acquisition in August of TAG Aviation’s FBOs at Geneva and Sion.

The busiest airport for business aviation in Europe saw a remarkable 6,499 departures in the March-August COVID half-year, beating both the ninth and 10th busiest airports combined, yet still representing a 50.4% drop from the same period of 2019. Le Bourget’s other business line—as a venue for trade shows—is not doing much better: the latest casualty of France’s troubling rise in COVID-19 cases is the Euronaval exhibition and conference, which is now going digital for Oct. 19-25.

Given the Russian government’s stringent restrictions on immigration during the pandemic, Vnukovo’s year-on-year decline of only 27.1% is a remarkable achievement. Also eye-catching is the fact that 1,510 of its 4,607 departures in the March-August period­—almost a third—were recorded in August. That figure represents 32.2% more traffic than in August 2019 and is likely as strong a reflection of pent-up demand as it is of the traditionally lower number of bizjet movements during the European holiday season.

The best-performing British business-aviation airport recorded 3,890 departures in the six months to the end of August, a year-on-year decline of almost half. The number may have been a little higher had the airfield not found itself the target of a “die-in” protest by the Extinction Rebellion group, which claims carbon emissions per passenger are nine times greater from business aviation than from airlines. On the brighter side, Gulfstream opened its new London-area service center at the airport in July.