I'd be really curious what portion of this is part 135 vs part 91, and in general commercial charter vs. small-time commercial operations (survey, instruction, etc) and private (in the FAA sense of non-commercial). It seems surprising to me that private (non-commercial) aviation has picked up considering the high and increasing costs of getting into it, but then the fact that used prices for piston singles seem to be going up would tend to suggest that.
I'm a relatively newly minted private pilot, having gotten my certificate shortly after the start of the pandemic, and I've met a couple of other people in a similar situation. I think the pandemic opened up a lot of free time and flight instruction was still operating throughout. But of course many of us are also stymied right now by there being "nowhere to go" in that aircraft prices are high and increasing and GA infrastructure is generally in a bad state in much of the country (no available private hangars in my urban area, community/FBO hangars often on waitlists, prices very high for everything). The extremely high price of new aircraft designs is very frustrating as well, as basically everyone without around a half a million to spend (or more realistically to finance) is stuck with a '60s 100LL design and boxed out of the newer diesel options, as well as safety features like AoA indication (although there remains some debate about how much AoA instruments actually improve safety) and airframe parachutes (which seem to just be a clear benefit with vanishingly few negative outcomes).
Commercial charter operators are of course able to finance very expensive aircraft, but are nonetheless hit by the same impact - per-hour charter prices are extremely high, and a huge portion of that is amortizing how much even used jet aircraft cost. Those prices are going up, not down, a trend which seems to be permanent.
I'm a relatively newly minted private pilot, having gotten my certificate shortly after the start of the pandemic, and I've met a couple of other people in a similar situation. I think the pandemic opened up a lot of free time and flight instruction was still operating throughout. But of course many of us are also stymied right now by there being "nowhere to go" in that aircraft prices are high and increasing and GA infrastructure is generally in a bad state in much of the country (no available private hangars in my urban area, community/FBO hangars often on waitlists, prices very high for everything). The extremely high price of new aircraft designs is very frustrating as well, as basically everyone without around a half a million to spend (or more realistically to finance) is stuck with a '60s 100LL design and boxed out of the newer diesel options, as well as safety features like AoA indication (although there remains some debate about how much AoA instruments actually improve safety) and airframe parachutes (which seem to just be a clear benefit with vanishingly few negative outcomes).
Commercial charter operators are of course able to finance very expensive aircraft, but are nonetheless hit by the same impact - per-hour charter prices are extremely high, and a huge portion of that is amortizing how much even used jet aircraft cost. Those prices are going up, not down, a trend which seems to be permanent.