When Middle East airspace closed in March, commercial flying across the region fell by 67% in two weeks. Bench showed it as it happened.
SkyPower Bench watches every aircraft fly, every day, and turns what it sees into the supply, demand and value picture that most of the industry waits a quarter to read.
By the SkyPower data desk · Figures from observed flying, January to October 2026
29,658weekly commercial departures from the Middle East in mid-February, the week before the closure
9,643in the first full week of March. By late March the region was back to 13,752 a week.
56,284commercial aircraft in service worldwide on 5 October, each one tracked daily
15,328parked or stored on the same day: the marginal supply that decides lease rates
Weekly commercial flights departing Middle East airports, January to March 2026. The shaded weeks follow the closure of regional airspace. Observed, not modelled.
One view of the market, from the whole sky down to one engine
Airlines publish capacity once a quarter. Appraisals arrive once a year. Lease and asset decisions get made in between, on stale numbers. Bench closes that gap. It starts from the flying itself: every commercial aircraft, every day, joined to who owns it, who flies it, what it carries and what it is worth.
From there it builds the market the way an economist would. Demand is the flying airlines choose to do, cleaned of weekday and seasonal rhythm. Supply is the fleet in service, the aircraft parked and stored that could return, and the flows between them. Where the two meet is tightness, and tightness is what moves lease rates and values.
US narrowbody flight hours per day, August to early October 2026. Dots are days; the line is the seven-day average, last at 34,077 hours a day.
Four screens, one terminal
MarketDemand and tightness for regional, narrowbody, widebody and freighter fleets across every region, with market lease rates and values beside the flying.
OperatorsCapacity by carrier, daily: departures, seats, seat-miles and fleet status, with an early read on each quarter well before it is reported.
AssetsThe full history of any aircraft or engine serial, which airframes an engine has hung on, and how hard its life has been against its like-kind peers.
PortfoliosYour fleets and pools, watched daily: who is flying, who is idle, what has left the pool since closing and whether the leavers were the strong ones or the weak.
Commercial fleet on 5 October 2026 by segment: in service (dark), parked under 30 days (amber) and stored 30 days or more (rust), from each aircraft's own last landing.
Built for the people who own, trade and finance aircraft
Parts and materials
See which types are heading for retirement, which stored fleets are coming back, and where used serviceable material will come from next.
Leasing and remarketing
Follow every asset on and off lease, spot lessee stress in its flying before it shows in its accounts, and price transitions with real downtime.
Aircraft-backed credit
Watch the collateral behind a pool or an equipment note as it flies, against its peers and its own past, including every asset that has left.
Investors and analysts
Read airline capacity, fleet health and market tightness weeks ahead of filings, at the level of a route, a carrier or a single tail.
How we work
Everything in Bench starts from what aircraft actually did. Where a number is an estimate, it is labelled as one. History is being filled back year by year toward 1995, so every series can be read against its own past as well as its peers. Bench runs as a fast, secure desktop terminal, with the same data available by API.
See your fleet, your pool or your market in Bench
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