After the peak of 59% of the global fleet grounded at the end of April, more and more aircraft are coming back from temporary storage, but the trend is slowly coming to a halt. At the beginning of September, Airlines had 32% of the global fleet still grounded, with 22.179 aircraft tracked in the ch-aviation fleets advanced database now back in service.
North America and Asia still are the regions with the fewest groundings compared to other parts of the world – 28% and 29%, while Europe (33%) is slightly behind them. When compared to the beginning of August, European airlines brought back 161 aircraft, while Asian carriers are operating 93 more active aircraft. It is interesting to see is that in North America only a single additional aircraft is operating compared to last month.
We can see a significant jump from one month to another when it comes to South America, with 76 reactivated aircraft, and in Africa with 28 reactivated aircraft, but the percentage of their grounded fleet is still at 50%.
Oceania is stagnating at 38% of the total fleet grounded.
We understand grounded fleets do not fully represent airline activity as airlines inevitably have different utilization levels for specific aircraft.
| Active | Total | %, grounded | |
| Africa | 750 | 1496 | 50% |
| Asia | 7661 | 10831 | 29% |
| Europe | 5503 | 8235 | 33% |
| North America | 7022 | 9767 | 28% |
| Oceania | 580 | 931 | 38% |
| South America | 663 | 1339 | 50% |
| TOTAL | 22179 | 32599 | 32% |
When it comes to the TOP 10 countries with the highest percentage of active fleets, counting more than 100 registered aircraft, Hungary leads with 96% of the active fleet with a total of 135 aircraft, followed by the Netherlands, Croatia, Seychelles, China, Luxembourg, Greenland, Slovenia, Tanzania, and Japan.
| Country | Count of aircraft | %, fleet for the country |
| Hungary | 135 | 96% |
| Netherlands (the) | 219 | 95% |
| China | 3554 | 91% |
| Japan | 603 | 85% |
| Malta | 182 | 85% |
| Poland | 146 | 84% |
| Taiwan (Province of China) | 185 | 82% |
| Mexico | 286 | 79% |
| France | 347 | 78% |
| Ireland | 352 | 77% |
Hong Kong is leading the list of the TOP10 countries with the highest percentage of grounded fleets by airline, and counting more than 100 registered aircraft. Only 36% of their fleet is active at the moment. The list is followed by Thailand, Sweden, Iran, Malaysia, Vietnam, Canada, United Arab Emirates, Australia, and Indonesia.
| Country | Count of aircraft | %, fleet for the country |
| Hong Kong | 108 | 36% |
| Thailand | 142 | 46% |
| Sweden | 122 | 49% |
| Iran (Islamic Republic of) | 141 | 51% |
| Malaysia | 146 | 53% |
| Vietnam | 120 | 53% |
| Canada | 538 | 54% |
| United Arab Emirates (the) | 318 | 58% |
| Australia | 383 | 58% |
| Indonesia | 397 | 60% |
We use ch-aviation fleets advanced and fleets ownership data for this analysis. In order to get the full and detailed insight on active and inactive aircraft, visit the following link.
