IADA dealers see 20% jump in Q2 preowned private jet sales

Preowned private jet transactions for International Aircraft Dealers Association members increased 20% year-over-year in 2024’s second quarter, and year-to-date sales of used business jets increased by 14%.

In Q2, the IADA dealers, who account for about half of global preowned private jet sales, closed 366 deals. For the first six months, there were 620 closed deals.

Meanwhile, new acquisition agreements in Q2 increased 8.6%.

IADA noted pipeline deals under contract increased from 236 to 319 year-over-year in Q2.

Still, the number of aircraft for sale that lowered prices increased from 73 to 122 year-over-year in Q2, and the number of deals that fell apart jumped from 55 to 71.

Looking ahead, Executive Director Wayne Starling says, “For the next six months, two-thirds of members surveyed predict that pricing and demand for large and ultra-long-range bizjets will decline while supply will increase, continuing a trend noted in our last quarterly report.”

Based on member feedback, he predicts stable demand in the turboprop and light jet segments for the next six months, though opinions vary more for mid-size and larger jets.

According to Starling, headwinds include geopolitical tensions, the divisive global election cycle, and persistent inflation and interest rate concerns.

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Preowned Private Outlook

The IADA dealers say transaction times take longer as buyers and sellers take more time to negotiate pre-purchase inspection findings.

Holstein Aviation’s Sean Holstein says, “The market continues to normalize driven by increases in supply, higher interest rates, and upcoming election uncertainty.”

“Overall, from what we have monitored, markets still seem to be generally healthy from an inventory and transaction volume perspective. I believe we will see steady activity that will likely persist through the beginning of next year,” says James Norris of Omni Aircraft Sales.

Meisner Aircraft’s Chris Meisner adds, “While there is still solid demand for preowned aircraft, demand by itself doesn’t translate to successful closings. Selling in this market successfully requires accurate pricing and hard work once again.”

Mente Group’s Cameron Gowans puts it this way: “[The Covid] bubble is deflating, not burst. Those airplanes that rose the most during the pandemic faced the largest budget declines. Late model aircraft remain strong due to OEM backlogs.”

Still, it’s not smooth flying. “Our buyers have put projects on hold as there appears to be a delta between what a seller will take and what a buyer will offer,” says Kyle Wagman of Leading Edge Solutions.

‘Value proposition’

However, most dealers are optimistic about the industry.

“Business aviation continues to show that its value proposition is for real. North America has continued to come off its boil, but other international markets are starting to warm up to take advantage of the slack. Utilization numbers are still very strong, with fractional making particularly strong gains in that metric. Low-time, well-equipped, great-pedigree aircraft are still trading quickly and not easy to find,” says Shawn Dinning of Dallas Jet International.

“The move toward balance continues. There is more supply, slight price softening, but continued buyer activity,” says John Odegard of 5×5 Trading.

The net effect for the preowned private jet market is improving the mood of buyers who, during the Covid spike, saw little available and inflated pricing.

Chad Anderson of Jetcraft says, “The election may give a few buyers excuses to put off purchases until 2025, but the amount of acquisition assignments we currently have suggest the usual wait and see isn’t necessarily occurring this time around. Thus far in 2024, the market has fared better than we originally anticipated. The climb of supply has been well received by a very qualified pool of buyers who waited to get past the buying fury of 2022-2023.”