JETNET Releases March 2019 and First Quarter 2019 Pre-Owned Business Jet, Business Turboprop, Piston, Helicopter, and Commercial Airliner Market Information
UTICA, NY – JETNET LLC, the leading provider of aviation market intelligence, has released March 2019 and first quarter 2019 results for the pre-owned business jet, business turboprop, piston, helicopter, and commercial airliner markets.
Market Summary
Key worldwide trends for all aircraft market segments were compared from March and 1st quarter of 2019 to March and 1st quarter of 2018. Generally, inventories are down across the board, except for Piston Aircraft. Lower inventories are certainly good news. However, as this story goes to print, there is a pronounced decline in Q1 retail sales and leases vs. one year ago. For all fixed and rotary wing aircraft combined, JETNET reports an overall 25% reduction in sales for Q1 2019 vs. Q1 2018. With regards to business jets, the decline is 19.9%. These figures could prove to be fluid, as notice of a few late quarter transactions may yet trickle in. Still, it must be acknowledged that the late-year stock market correction and prolonged U.S. government shutdown (Dec. 22 through Jan. 25) had a deleterious impact on the pre-owned market.
Across all aircraft sectors, there was a total of 6,138 or 1.9% fewer aircraft for sale in the quarterly comparison. This was a difference of 120 fewer aircraft and helicopters for sale.
Interestingly, Fleet For-Sale percentages for business jets showed the same 9.3% for 2019 and 2018 in the quarterly comparison.
Total full sale transactions were down by 620 aircraft and helicopters. The Top 3 were Commercial Airliner jets (-173), Turbine Helicopters (-136), and Business Jets (-127) totaling 436 or 70% of the total decline in the quarterly comparisons.
Business Jet full sale transactions showed a 19.9% decrease, and are taking less time to sell (21 fewer days) than last year. However, Business Turboprops showed a decrease of 9.6% in sale transactions, and are selling over the exact same time (320 days) comparing 2019 and 2018.
Turbine Helicopters and Commercial Airliners saw the same percentage decreases in sale transactions in the first quarter comparisons, at -31.7%. However, Turbine Helicopters took 132 more days to sell, whereas it took 265 fewer days for Commercial Airliner jets to sell.
Commercial Airliners reported by JETNET include the numbers for sale for both Commercial Jets (including airliners converted to VIP) and Commercial Turboprop aircraft. Interestingly, Business Jets (at 510) and Commercial Jets (at 373) accounted for 47% of the total full sale transactions (1,863). The total full sale transactions were down 25%, with business turboprops showing the lowest percentage decrease of 9.6%. Note: JETNET does not cover all piston aircraft inventory or sales. The piston models that JETNET tracks are: Baron 58 series, Cessna 414 and 421 series, Diamond DA62, and the Piper high-end singles M350, Malibu, Matrix, and Mirage.
