More Private Jet Trips Are Starting in Southern Europe Than Arriving

Global Charter flight data from Cascais, Faro, Malaga and Palma shows more journeys starting there, with travel extending beyond summer.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, October 5, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — More private jet journeys are now starting at four of Southern Europe’s best-known coastal airports than arriving there, according to an analysis of flights arranged by Global Charter between January 2021 and September 2026.

The study covers Cascais, Faro, Málaga and Palma, serving areas that have traditionally drawn a large share of their international visitors in summer. Flights arranged across the four airports more than tripled over the period studied, but the direction of travel changed too.

From 2021 to 2023, 41% of trips involving these airports started there. Since 2024, that figure has risen to 57%.

The figures suggest a change in how some clients use places such as the Algarve, the Costa del Sol, Mallorca and the Lisbon coast. A journey from London to the Algarve still fits the traditional holiday pattern. What is changing is the number of trips that begin in Faro, continue elsewhere in Europe and later return to the Algarve.

“Five years ago, we saw these airports much more often at the arrival end of a booking,” said Harry Morgan, Founder and CEO of Global Charter. “Now we regularly arrange journeys that begin on the coast, go somewhere else in Europe and return a few days later. That tells us the client is using that location in a different way.”

London remains the most common destination from the four airports, but its share of the flying has fallen from 32% between 2021 and 2023 to 21% since 2024.

Over the same periods, the number of different destinations reached from the coast has doubled. Journeys now include Ibiza, Madrid, Milan, Paris and the French Riviera.

The data does not suggest that clients are abandoning London. Since 2024, around two thirds of those starting flights from the four coastal airports have also begun journeys from at least one other city. Many appear to be dividing their time between several places during the year.

The seasonal pattern is changing as well.

June and July remain the busiest months, but since 2024 more than half of flights have taken place outside June, July and August. One quarter have operated between October and April.

Faro shows the shift particularly clearly. Between 2021 and 2023, fewer than one in four flights in the dataset took place outside the main summer period. Since 2024, more than half have.

Cascais has changed too. Before 2024, it accounted for relatively little activity in the data. Today, more than half of the trips involving Cascais begin there, including journeys where a client leaves for another European city and later returns.

That type of round trip is less typical of a short holiday. It is more consistent with someone travelling from a place where they spend part of the year.

Flexible working has made longer stays abroad more practical for some households, while international communities in parts of Portugal and Spain have grown. Changes to the UK’s non-domiciled tax regime in 2025 have also prompted wider discussion about residence among internationally mobile families.

The flight records cannot show why an individual chose to spend more time in Portugal or Spain, so no direct link can be drawn between those factors and a particular booking.

What they do show is a different pattern of travel.

A second home was traditionally somewhere people travelled to. Increasingly, these coastal locations are also places they travel from.

The full analysis, “Second Bases in Southern Europe: What Our Flight Data Shows”, is available at:

https://www.globalcharter.com/post/private-jet-europe-second-bases

Methodology

The analysis covers flights involving Cascais Airport, Faro Airport, Málaga Airport and Palma de Mallorca Airport from January 2021 to September 2026. The figures represent the company’s own charter activity and do not represent total private aviation traffic at the four airports.

About Global Charter

Global Charter is an independent private jet brokerage arranging private aviation for private and corporate clients worldwide, with offices in London, Miami, Los Angeles, Toronto and Dubai.

Priyank Raval
Global Charter
email us here

Media gallery