2026 FBO Survey

With business aviation activity expanding globally last year by 4.5% over 2024, that spelled good news for the FBO businesses servicing those aircraft. According to data from industry analyst WingX Advance, the nearly 3.9 million private jet departures represented a quarter million more flights year over year. Most of the FBOs BJT sister publication AIN spoke with for this year’s FBO Survey saw strong growth in 2025, with several reporting it as the busiest in their history.

WingX noted that the active business jet fleet increased by 2% worldwide last year, and according to industry experts, that trend is expected to continue. “New business aircraft deliveries are projected to pick up with fractional demand leading the way,” said Ron Jackson, co-principal of the Aviation Business Strategies Group.

He noted that data specialist Argus International forecasts a nearly 2% increase in flight activity for 2026, adding that slow and modest growth is “good news for the FBO owner and operator.”

A recent study from business market researcher The Insight Partners predicts that the global FBO operator market will nearly double in value by 2031, to nearly $41.5 billion annually over the next five years.

Given those prognostications, it is little wonder that the FBO arena remains a seller’s market, one in which private equity and investment funds are playing an ever-increasing role.

“One of our key perspectives is that, over the past two to three years, for those deals in the $10 to $25 million range, we have seen a shift in the buyer base where the percentage of interested ‘industry’ buyers now seems to be much less than the percentage of those who are funded by private equity [PE] groups,” explained FBO industry veteran and consultant Carl Muhs. “While many industry buyers are still out there and are active, the number of independent PE buyer groups that are actively pursuing FBO sales has increased substantially.”

The industry’s two mega chains, Signature Aviation and Atlantic Aviation, are both owned by private equity funds. They face stiff competition for new locations from smaller rising chains and new entrants.

Another dynamic is that airport sponsors expect considerable investments along with new lease awards, and FBO operators, in return, want much longer terms. “Clearly, over the past five years, the buyers’ expectation of the acceptable term of the lease...has increased significantly,” Muhs told AIN.

Against this backdrop, for the 45th consecutive year, AIN once again asked its readership to rate the facilities and services at the FBOs they frequent both in the U.S. and internationally. For a service provider to reach the highest ranks in the survey, it is not enough to excel in one or even two areas; they must demonstrate consistent quality across all five categories that make up the final score.