The global twin-engine helicopter market conditions saw improvement last year with a tightening of the preowned inventory, but overall sales throughout the preowned helicopter market were down, according to Toronto-based Aero Asset. In its annual Preowned Helicopter Market Trends report released on Monday at Heli-Expo 2020, the company said overall preowned sales of $444 million in 2019 had declined 5 percent from the previous year, while the estimated value of available preowned helicopters declined by 18 percent, to $1.14 billion, year-over-year.
“Clearly, the most active market during 2019 was the Airbus H145, which at the end of fourth-quarter 2019 had seven months of supply available for sale at 2019 trade levels," said Valerie Pereira, the company’s research director. “The market that saw the biggest improvement in liquidity last year was the H225, with a drop in absorption rate of three years, six months, to an 18-month supply at 2019 trade levels.”
Over the past year, mean trading values for the Airbus H135 and H155 models, a, while pricing in other markets declined, with the Bell 412EP losing the most ground as it tallied a mean $2.2 million loss in trading value.
Overall, the light-twin inventory fell by 20 percent, driven by EMS operator demand for H135s and H145s equipped with Thales Meghas avionics and for IFR. While sales volume in the segment saw a slight decline, market conditions improved with supply (at 2019 trade level) dropping 40 percent since 2018.
Emmanuel Dupuy, sales director of Aero Asset, said the most liquid twin-engine helicopter in the pre-owned market was the EC145C2. “VIP helicopters are 85 percent of the supply, yet only 20 percent of the sales represent VIP. It is predominantly the C2s that are dominating this market. The H145T2 market had only a couple of trades last year. And the EMS operators were driving this market with almost 60 percent of the sales."
"The [A109] Power market was the second most active market in 2019," Dupuy continued. "It is quite a consistent market year over year. What we see is a very gradual decline in pricing year over year and to the point where, over the last couple of quarters, I think pricing got to a stage where single-engine owners really were confident to jump into an IFR twin. We saw 22 retail trades in 2019, and in January 2020 only 30 units are available for sale.”
For the medium helicopter segment, both supply and sales volume fell slightly last year, while preowned supply at the top end of the range has fallen significantly, according to the company.
The number of heavy twins available rose slightly year-over-year, but retail sales volume increased 300 percent over the same period. Supply (at 2019 trade levels) dropped substantially by the end of the year to 21 months, illustrating the categories' continuing improvement.
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The global twin-engine helicopter market conditions saw improvement last year with a tightening of the preowned inventory, but overall sales throughout the pre-owned helicopter market were down, according to Toronto-based Aero Asset. In its annual Preowned Helicopter Market Trends report released last month at Heli-Expo 2020, the company said overall preowned sales of $444 million in 2019 had declined 5 percent from the previous year, while the estimated value of available preowned helicopters declined by 18 percent, to $1.14 billion, year-over-year.
“Clearly, the most active market during 2019 was the Airbus H145, which at the end of fourth-quarter 2019 had seven months of supply available for sale at 2019 trade levels," said Valerie Pereira, the company’s research director. “The market that saw the biggest improvement in liquidity last year was the H225, with a drop in absorption rate of three years, six months, to an 18-month supply at 2019 trade levels.”
Over the past year, mean trading values for the Airbus H135 and H155 models rose, while pricing in other markets declined, with the Bell 412EP losing the most ground as it tallied a mean $2.2 million loss in trading value.
Overall, the light-twin inventory fell by 20 percent, driven by EMS operator demand for H135’s and H145’s equipped with Thales Meghas avionics and IFR. While sales volume in the segment saw a slight decline, market conditions improved with supply (at 2019 trade level) dropping 40 percent since 2018.
Emmanuel Dupuy, sales director of Aero Asset, said the most liquid twin-engine helicopter in the pre-owned market was the EC145C2. “VIP helicopters are 85 percent of the supply, yet only 20 percent of the sales represent VIP. It is predominantly the C2s that dominate this market. The H145T2 market had only a couple of trades last year. And the EMS operators were driving this market with almost 60 percent of the sales."
"The [A109] Power market was the second most active in 2019," Dupuy continued. "It is quite a consistent market year over year. What we see is a very gradual decline in pricing year over year and to the point where, over the last couple of quarters, I think pricing got to a stage where single-engine owners really were confident to jump into an IFR twin. We saw 22 retail trades in 2019, and in January 2020 only 30 units are available for sale.”
For the medium-helicopter segment, both supply and sales volume fell slightly last year, while preowned supply at the top end of the range has fallen significantly, according to the company.
The number of heavy twins available rose slightly year-over-year, but retail sales volume increased 300 percent over the same period. Supply (at 2019 trade levels) dropped substantially by the end of the year to 21 months, illustrating the categories' continuing improvement.