This month, we publish our annual review of aircraft under registry in a number of jurisdictions that are popular for the hosting of corporate jets and airliners. The data has been compiled by RANA from both official and unofficial sources.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resultant wide-ranging international sanctions have clearly had a major impact on the numbers of registered aircraft under certain registries that have long been popular with Russian owners. Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the Isle of Man, in particular, have seen significant falls as aircraft have been de-registered, voluntarily or compulsorily, because of ownership links to sanctioned individuals or entities.
Despite these challenges, the San Marino Aircraft Registry (SMAR) has continued to sustain outstanding growth, based on the effective promotion of its customer services, competitive costing and wide acceptance of international technical and crew standards. The ‘T7’ registry boasts aircraft of all sizes and, on the commercial side, has entered into several active 83bis agreements, which enable aircraft registered in San Marino to be operated for commercial purposes by foreign AOC holders.
Malta has also increased the number of AOCs set up to operate business aircraft on a commercial basis – from 29 to 33 – since last year’s review. Operators continue to be attracted by the island’s tax incentives and ease of process. Several operators have added to their existing fleets, with Flexjet Operations Malta now boasting a fleet of four Legacy 500, four Praetor 600 and a single Gulfstream G650ER – up from just one of each model last year. Programme specialist VistaJet has also continued to expand its fleet and now boasts a tally of 91 aircraft under Maltese registration, including 19 flagship Bombardier Global 7500.
The table shows the figures as of February 2022/February 2023 (or latest available).
Registry Corporate jets Corporate airliners (incl. Legacy 600/650, Lineage, Challenger 850)
Aruba (P4) 38/37 24/23
Bermuda (VP/VQ-B) 56/41 37/34
Cayman (VP-C) 131/121 43/36
Guernsey (2) 55/57 7/4
Ireland (EI/EJ) 13/15 1/1
Isle of Man (M) 213/183 24/14
Jersey (ZJ)* 1/– 0/–
Malta (9H) 180/203 45/48
San Marino (T7) 178/181 34/35
*The Jersey Aircraft Register was wound up November 2022