Worldwide business and general aviation avionics sales jumped by 22.6 percent year-over-year in the first three months, topping $777 million, the Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA) reported yesterday. Sales were up by $143 million over the $634 million reported in first-quarter 2022.
Forward-fit sales drove that leap, up 32.1 percent to nearly $468 million in the quarter, while retrofit sales also rose by 10.5 percent to $310 million. Forward-fit represented some 60.1 percent of sales in the quarter. The North American market dominated, accounting for 74.5 percent of sales in the quarter.
However, total sales in the first three months of the year ebbed by 2.1 percent from the fourth quarter of 2022, “snapping a streak of 10 consecutive quarters of increasing [month-over-month] sales,” AEA noted.
"This quarterly report offers mixed results, as the industry posted a lower dollar amount in sales when compared to the fourth quarter of last year, while at the same time reporting an increase in sales of more than 22 percent compared to the first three months of 2022," said AEA president and CEO Mike Adamson. "Also of note, the industry garnered the largest forward-fit sales volume in the history of the report with more than $467 million in avionics sales to OEMs. It is only the second time that quarterly sales have topped $400 million in that category."