FAA sees growth in air taxi services

At its annual aviation forecasting conference in Washington, the Federal Aviation Administration said it expects to see “strong growth in business aviation demand continuing,” driven not only by economic growth here and abroad, but also by “a growing fleet of very light jets (VLJs). VLJs, with their relatively inexpensive operating costs, may redefine ‘on-demand’ air taxi service,” the FAA said. The agency predicted that some 400 VLJs will start flying next year, and that the number will continue to increase by 450-500 a year through 2025.

The FAA is forecasting relatively slow growth for domestic air travel, which will continue to be outpaced by international trips. Domestically, overall commercial airline capacity will grow by just six-tenths of one percent this year, FAA said, and the mainline carriers’ domestic capacity will grow by only three-tenths of a percent. Regional carriers, on the other hand, are expected to post a capacity growth of 2.5 percent this year. “While demand for 70-90 seat aircraft continues to increase, we expect the number of 50-seat regional jets in service will fall,” the agency predicted. Last year, the U.S. aviation industry carried 765 million passengers, a number the FAA now expects will reach 1 billion in 2016 – a year later than its previous forecast.