More Signs of a Bizav Recovery

Industry consultant David Wyndham (at left) said this week that he sees "glimmers of hope" for a business aviation turnaround. Wyndham, who is co-owner and vice president of the aviation information company Conklin & de Decker, noted that interest rates remain low, the used aircraft market is improving and flight hours are rising, especially among charter operators. Indeed, the latest report from online charter portal Avinode shows that requests for charter flights are continuing to increase. On January 1, the company's demand index for the next 30 days stood at nearly 117--up about 11 points from December 1 and almost 17 points from the beginning of 2009. Avinode calculates its index by taking the average financial value of the 60,000 or so trip requests it processes monthly and calculating an average daily value for trips requested for the coming month.