We’re excited to announce the launch of ch-aviation’s Aircraft Events dataset, representing the most comprehensive, event-by-event record of commercial aviation and business jet activity. Whether you’re building market intelligence tools, conducting fleet analysis, or modelling aircraft valuations, this dataset gives you the granular, time-stamped data you need to follow any aircraft from first delivery to final scrapping.
Aircraft Lifecycle Events Dataset
Every commercial aircraft and business jet passes through a series of defining moments: it’s delivered to its first operator, transitions between airlines, gets converted to a new variant, changes its registration, and eventually retires or is parted out. Until now, piecing that story together meant pulling from fragmented sources. Now, our Aircraft Events dataset captures every one of those events in a single, structured feed, updated weekly and delivered directly to your systems via Amazon Web Services or Snowflake.
Which events are we tracking?
For each aircraft in the commercial aviation and business jet fleet, we track:
- Deliveries: the delivery operator and date
- Operator Retirements: the operator retiring the aircraft, plus the next operator where already known
- Re-deliveries: the incoming operator inducting the aircraft, alongside the previous operator
- Conversions: the previous and new aircraft variant, with previous and next operators where applicable
- Registration Changes: changes made while an aircraft is with an operator or in storage
- Permanent Retirements: aircraft taken out of service, with previous operator recorded
- Scrappings & Part-Outs: end-of-life events, with previous operator recorded
Data coverage
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| ch-aviation Aircraft ID | Unique identifier for the aircraft |
| Construction Number | Manufacturer-assigned construction number |
| Manufacturer Serial Number | MSN for cross-referencing |
| Previous / New Aircraft Variant | Track type changes and conversions |
| Previous / New Registration | Follow registration history |
| Previous / New Operator | Full operator transition detail |
| Intra-Group Flag* | Identifies transactions within airline groups |
| Event Date | Precise date of the event |
| Aircraft Age at Event | Age of the aircraft at the time of the event |
| Event Type | Standardised classification of the event |
*A Note on Intra-Group Transactions
Not all aircraft transitions represent open-market activity. When an aircraft moves between subsidiaries or brands within the same airline group, that’s a fundamentally different kind of transaction than a free-market re-delivery. Our intra-group transaction flag makes it easy to include or exclude these events in your analysis — giving you a cleaner picture of true market activity when you need it, or a complete operational picture when you don’t.
Sample file
The current sample dataset includes aircraft events from Swiss, Alaska Airlines, Horizon Air, ASL Airlines Ireland, Jet Aviation Business Jets and RVR Aviation. This cross-section of mainline carriers, regional operators, and business aviation gives you a representative feel for the depth and breadth of the data.
The sample below contains 10 rows of data and provides a brief overview of the dataset structure and formatting.
| event_id | aircraft_id | cn | msn | previous_variant | new_variant | previous_registration | new_registration | previous_operator_ch_code | previous_operator | new_operator_ch_code | new_operator | intra_group_transaction | date_of_event | date_of_event_full | aircraft_age | event_type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| e05b900c48ba142d610b6c7e78e8d822 | 34 | 287 | 287 | DHC-8-100 | N828PH | QX | Horizon Air | 24/07/1991 | 24/07/1991 | 0 | Delivery | |||||
| b483a57eff2da7182e0b84a44495f2f7 | 34 | 287 | 287 | DHC-8-100 | N828PH | QX | Horizon Air | 748 | 748 Air Services | NO | 20/03/2002 | 20/03/2002 | 10.66 | Operator Retirement | ||
| 69d91754eca887f4d5feb20fb869f28e | 34 | 287 | 287 | DHC-8-100 | 5Y-JGM | QX | Horizon Air | 748 | 748 Air Services | NO | 02/02/2006 | 02/02/2006 | 14.54 | Re-delivery | ||
| 0db51712f9e81c61f620327d13ffcb2e | 44 | 7 | 340A-007 | Saab 340A | HB-AHB | LX | Swiss | 1984/07 | 01/07/1984 | 0.04 | Delivery | |||||
| 45b71232c4d5128d064241e9edbbe58d | 44 | 7 | 340A-007 | Saab 340A | HB-AHB | LX | Swiss | BM | flybmi | NO | 25/07/1993 | 25/07/1993 | 9.11 | Operator Retirement | ||
| 33b8a294012c199ac9dd27d7001588d8 | 44 | 7 | 340A-007 | Saab 340A | HB-AHB | LX | Swiss | BM | flybmi | NO | 26/07/1993 | 26/07/1993 | 9.12 | Re-delivery | ||
| 518c13afee8fa9ce90b3487d853e6568 | 228 | 3018 | 29201 | B737-400(SF) | OE-IAU | TAY | ASL Airlines Belgium | SLW | ASL Airlines Ireland | YES | 03/09/2021 | 03/09/2021 | 23.43 | Operator Retirement | ||
| 21d6c220094832ffa0cb34c47fa9b3f9 | 228 | 3018 | 29201 | B737-400(SF) | EI-STW | TAY | ASL Airlines Belgium | SLW | ASL Airlines Ireland | YES | 17/09/2021 | 17/09/2021 | 23.47 | Re-delivery | ||
| 37a7d3eb87e842b098eaf4f4be7c9ac6 | 615 | 145564 | 145564 | EMB-145LU | HB-JAT | LX | Swiss | 21/02/2002 | 21/02/2002 | 0 | Delivery | |||||
| 354caa05c79db73e986036380ce5aaf0 | 615 | 145564 | 145564 | EMB-145LU | HB-JAT | LX | Swiss | RUS | Cirrus Aviation | NO | 02/09/2005 | 02/09/2005 | 3.53 | Operator Retirement | ||
Try It Yourself
We’re offering access to our AWS S3 sample data bucket so you can start building proof of concepts right away, using real data across all of our sample datasets, not just this one.
Access the Sample Data S3 bucket HERE.
For any questions, feel free to contact us at sales@ch-aviation.com.
About ch-aviation Data Feeds
Learn more about our data feeds here: https://data.ch-aviation.com/.
