CEOs are spending more hours on the corporate jet, taking advantage of fuel prices that have tumbled to five and a half year lows. “We’ve actually seen a gradual increase in the number of flight hours being taken with business jets,” said Neil Book, CEO of JSSI, the world’s largest maintenance company for private aircraft.

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Flight hours rose 8% in December versus December 2013 and Book expects that number to climb even higher this year. “As we expect fuel prices to stay constant, or possibly continue to decline, we expect to see this trend continue with more flight hours in the year ahead.” However, the growth is not being driven by North America just yet were flight hours remain flat, says Book. “The surprising figures this year is Europe is up well over 10%, the Middle East is up over 10% as is South America, so we are seeing a lot of confidence there.”

That confidence may signal a rise in global economic expansion. “Business jet hours translate to business getting done all over the world,” explains Book, which is generally a good sign for the overall economy. “We think it's a very positive indicator for the U.S. economy and the global economy.”

Cheaper fuel prices may also help improve the perception of those who travel by private jet. During the recession executives in the banking and auto industry were highly criticized for using corporate jets as those industries were accepting corporate bailouts from the U.S. government.

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