“Coupled with sharply reduced availability of
younger used aircraft inventory and new aircraft
designs coming into the market, this sets the stage
for a stronger new aircraft order and delivery
outlook in the years ahead,” Paul Cardarelli,
JETNET Vice President elaborated.
These trends continued through Q2 2018,
according to a variety of sources, with expectations
of further tightening in the Light and Medium jet
markets as supplies continue to shrink and asking
prices start firming-up.The Tide Turned Quickly
Several Dealers and Brokers AvBuyerspoke with
expressed varying degrees of surprise at the
swiftness of the market swing.
“As last year was winding down we could see
signs of the pool of used aircraft achieving a
degree of stability, but as 2017 passed into 2018
the surprise was in how the pool continued to
shrink,” explained one Midwest broker who
handles business aircraft from single-engine
Turboprops to Large-Cabin jets. “We've watched
the pool of available, actively marketed jets shrink
for several weeks.”
A West Coast dealer saw the same trend from a
different angle: “We watch the time on market for
the categories we sell, and that time has been
shrinking since last year. It ran into months andsometimes years for some models. Now we're
seeing time on market decline to a few weeks,
maybe a few months, but less, nonetheless.
“There are buyers eager to seal a deal on
something good before another potential buyer
gets a chance to bid the price up. After months of
price slashing in front of recalcitrant prospects the
potential for losing out while trying to leverage a
lower price has prospects moving more quickly
than they have for a long time.”
In Q1 2018, inventories of used business aircraft
fell across the board, according to JETNET.
Overall, fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft declined
nearly 11% – down to 5,675 aircraft (or by 680
aircraft from Q1 2017. Business jets declined the
most, by 9.3% (350 aircraft) to 2,020 of the active
fleet. That’s the smallest number in 10 years and
the smallest percentage in 13 years.
The surprise element in all of this is how those
trends continued into Q2 2018. While whole
numbers are still in development, the sense of
optimism and the shorter sales cycles continue to
feed the shift to a Seller's market.A Global Phenomenon...
These positive trends are not restricted to the US
or North American markets. Though the downturn
washed around the globe in waves impacting
domestic and international markets in varying
cycles there’s been a wide impact of the US 2017
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
Renewed optimism have been noted in the US
and Europe, and rolling replacement cycles for
Light and Medium jets only feeds this emotional
high, say dealers and brokers.
One East Coast broker noted, “Global wealth
growth typically adds fuel to the growth in business
aircraft sales and helps recruit new participants.
These past few years more of the new entrants to
Business Aviation came into the community
without buying an aircraft.
“They bought a share, a jet card, a membership
in a flight club – anything to improve their travel
experience without the obligation taken on by an
owner. Now, some of these same folks have
experienced private aircraft travel and want to get
in deeper, something we can attribute to the
worldwide economic expansion.” Advertising Enquiries see Page 12 http://www.AVBUYER.com July 2018 – AVBUYERMAGAZINE 39Dave Higdon is a highly respected aviation
journalist who has covered all aspects of
civil aviation over the past 36 years. Based
in Wichita, he has several thousand flight
hours, and has piloted pretty much every-
thing from foot-launched wings to combat
jets. Contact him via [email protected]Used Aircraft Sales Trends Jan18.qxp_Finance 19/06/2018 12:32 Page 2