FBOs
Aviation International News: FBO Reader Survey 2009
Twelve months ago, the introduction to AIN’s 2008 international FBO special report remarked that there had probably never been a better time to be i

Twelve months ago, the introduction to AIN’s 2008 international FBO special report remarked that there had probably never been a better time to be in the FBO business. At the time, business aircraft traffic growth was in full flow in markets outside North America and there was no obvious sign that this trend would diminish to any great extent.

Now the shockwaves from a financial crisis that began in the U.S. are cascading around world economies, and business aviation is clearly one of the casualties. Most European FBOs have seen a relatively steep downturn in traffic that started in September or October. The smallest decline in traffic over the past six months reported to AIN has been around 3 percent, but quite a few bases have seen month-on-month declines of just above 20 percent.