AvBuyer Magazine - July 2018

40 AVBUYERMAGAZINE– July 2018 http://www.AVBUYER.com Aircraft Index see Page 129

BIZAV INTELLIGENCE
BUYING & SELLING

Verify, Verify, Verify

Just a few years back some prospective buyers

offered significant price premiums on certain

Medium and Large-Cabin jets that were in high

demand but short supply. Today, dealers and

brokers caution against continuing that practice.

“The supplies are in fact declining,” explained our

Midwest broker, “but new inventory also

continues to enter the market as operators take

delivery of their replacement aircraft. It's probably

best for today’s buyers to stick with the basics and

stay smart.”

So what are the basics? Consult with your

expert, weigh a prospective purchase against

others within its category. Assure yourself that all

required maintenance and airworthiness directives

have been re solved.

Was all maintenance done on-time, as required?

Does the condition of the logs and records allow

easy confirmation of all maintenance and repair

work? Is there any damage history or major

repairs? Before offering a top price on any aircraft,

work with a maintenance technician to examine

those records and perform a detailed Pre-

Purchase Inspection and condition audit. Beware

inflated prices. In other words, verify everything.

A Cautionary Note...

It would be remiss not to mention the recent

unilateral actions of President Donald Trump

that triggered a series of tariffs and counter

tariffs with the potential to dampen economic

expansion. The tariffs on aluminum and steel

imports may ultimately impact production

and sales of one of America's brightest

exports – aircraft.

The US President levied some of the tariffs on

some of America's closest allies – Canada, the

UK, France, Japan – and in some cases impact

nations with which the United States enjoys a

trade surplus (i.e. Canada). Canada and France

both produce aircraft, but the effective date of

those levies has not yet resulted in any feedback

on their impact on sales. The impact could be

counterintuitive to the progress made these past

several months. We’ll need to wait and see...

Used Aircraft Sales Trends Jan18.qxp_Finance 19/06/2018 16:08 Page 3