The business and general aviation avionics market has jumped 15.5 percent in the first three quarters of the year with sales of both forward-fit and retrofit applications increasing, according to the Aircraft Electronics Association’s third-quarter 2018 Avionics Market Report released yesterday. Avionics sales of reporting companies inched over $2 billion through the first nine months of 2018, compared with $1.73 billion during the same period in 2017.
"With robust growth in sales during the first nine months of the year, industry is on pace to produce the largest dollar amount of year-end avionics sales since the reporting process began back in 2012," said AEA president Paula Derks. "We have now seen seven straight quarters of positive year-over-year sales growth dating back to the end of 2016, and it's an encouraging sign for the industry that sales are strong in both the forward-fit and retrofit markets."
Forward-fit and retrofit applications both have experienced solid gains—retrofit sales improved by 14.7 percent to $1.15 billion, while forward-fit sales were up 16.6 percent to $855 billion in the first nine months of 2018.
Third-quarter sales were representative of the yearlong trends, up 15.6 percent over 2017, reaching nearly $680 million. Sales in the most recent quarter, however, were slightly softer than the second quarter, which totaled more than $682 million.
With ADS-B and other equipment mandates looming, the retrofit market continued to account for the larger share of the market at 57.3 percent. North America remains the dominant market, accounting for 77.7 percent of the total sales for the companies that break out regional sales.
Twenty-one avionics manufacturers participate in the avionics report, which is designed to provide a snapshot of sales trends as well as the overall value of the market. "This report provides valuable information to promote the business and general aviation avionics industry to investors and inform elected officials of its global economic value," Derks said when she unveiled the report earlier in the decade.