The Financial Post reports in its Monday edition that affluent travellers avoiding commercial flights during the pandemic are helping fuel a recovery in preowned corporate aircraft transactions this year and reviving shoots of demand for new planes even as the business aviation industry braces for a slump in 2020 deliveries. A Reuters dispatch to the Post says that jets built as corporate aircraft, which can carry from roughly a handful to 19 travellers, tout less risk of exposure to the COVID-19 pandemic because their passengers can avoid airports and select who comes on board. Private flights have mostly recovered better than those of commercial airlines, with operators like Netjets reporting improved demand this summer. Corporate planemakers, such as Bombardier, have been watching to see whether the rebound in leisure flights would translate into new aircraft orders. Preowned jet transactions are bouncing back to near 2019 levels, while lawyers and brokers are seeing orders for new planes trickling in after a pandemic-induced lull, generating cautious optimism for corporate planemakers as they begin reporting quarterly earnings this week. During the third quarter, used business-jet sales rose 9 per cent to 643.