The market research firm AMSTAT has come out with its report on second-quarter 2010 sales of business jets and turboprops—and ventures cautious optimism. Across the board, sales fell sharply in the first quarter, but picked up again in the second quarter, AMSTAT said.
Among business jets, for example, AMSTAT said that resale retail transactions rose from 2 percent to 2.4 percent in the second quarter. For turboprops, transactions rose from 2 percent to 2.3 percent of the fleet for the same time frames. That’s welcome news, but AMSTAT also said that quarterly transaction levels above 3 percent are required for the market to be considered healthy.
“At the current rate of improvement, it will be at least another year—and probably more like two—before transaction activity and pre-owned aircraft for sale inventory to return to historically normal levels,” said AMSTAT Executive Vice President Tom Benson. But Benson holds out hope in another area. “Business aviation flight activity has been improving nicely over the past four quarters, and it would not be unreasonable to think that this flight activity will soon require a speedier recovery in the equipment market,” Benson said. The full market update report can be viewed on the Aircraft Shopper Online (ASO) website.
Thomas A. Horne
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