This year’s Martyn Fiddler State of Business Aviation update is focused on one idea: future proofing. The problem with that phrase is that it assumes the future can be seen clearly, planned for, and protected against.
The last 18 months suggest otherwise. The industry has dealt with disruption on multiple fronts at the same time. Supply chains remain stretched. OEM and parts deliveries are still constrained. Geopolitics, tariffs, sanctions and fuel costs continue to change almost day to day.
This is why Dwight D. Eisenhower’s line feels particularly relevant:
“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.”
That is the approach for this year’s State of Business Aviation. Our objective is not to predict the future with certainty, but to help us all navigate uncertainty and identify where opportunity sits within it. Across the industry, clear themes have emerged. They shape how assets are arranged and set up, how decisions are made, and how firms position themselves in the market.
We believe there are six themes that will define business aviation in 2026:
- Antifragile jets: Diamonds are forever
- Cost of conflict: The risk to business aviation
- AI is eating the world: How AI changes what gets seen
- Moving to the jet stream: The transition from ownership to subscription arrived already
- Flooding the zone: When plausible nonsense becomes a risk
- ‘Becoming’: Why business aviation firms must reposition continuously
Each of these reflects a different part of the same underlying shift.
Martyn Fiddler see opportunity within each of these changes. Over six articles, we will set out our thinking, based on ongoing conversations with clients and industry participants across the market. We will also be discussing these themes at the Isle of Man Aviation Conference on Wednesday 24 June 2026, and we look forward to continuing the conversation throughout the year.
In our first instalment we explore how pressure is no longer the enemy of aircraft value but increasingly a driver of it.
Let’s dive in and get under the hood of the themes shaping 2026 and define how they create real value for your work, and for ours.
