With flight data through to the end of June 2025 available, this week’s Flight Friday looks at utilization for the first half of each year from 2019.
The 2019 data became an essential benchmark for normal aviation utilization following the COVID-19 outbreak in early 2020, despite the Boeing MAX grounding that affected operations in early 2019. This pre-pandemic baseline then served as the standard reference point for measuring recovery in the aviation sector.
It took five years to exceed that level, but during the first half of 2024, a new benchmark was set. Not only did both hours and cycles exceed 2019, but the average flight time in 2024 also increased from just under two hours 13 minutes up to over two hours 14 minutes.
2025 saw continued growth with aggregate hours up 11% when compared to 2019, and 5% on 2024. Likewise, cycles were up almost 9% compared to 2019 and 4% higher than 2024. The increase in hours and cycles has also led to a slightly longer average flight time in 2025 to over two and a quarter hours.
While total aggregated utilization is up, as is average stage length, the average utilization by aircraft is down 10 hours in 2025 compared to 2019, and down five cycles per month, due to the increase in fleet size.
This data was put together using Aviation Week’s Tracked Aircraft Utilization database.
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