Business and general aviation avionics sales jumped 19.2 percent year-over-year, to $1.6 billion, in the first six months according to the Aircraft Electronics Association’s (AEA) second-quarter avionics market report. In the second quarter alone, sales soared 16.2 percent over the same period in 2022, to $823 million, AEA reported, noting that this marked the highest quarterly sales volume in the history of its market report.
Forward-fit sales drove those increases, notching its highest quarterly mark at $490 million—only the third time they have topped $400 million over a three-month period. For the first half of the year, forward-fit sales climbed 31.7 percent year-over-year, reaching $958 million.
The retrofit market accounted for 40.2 percent of the first-half avionics sales, marking a 4.5 percent year-over-year increase. First-half retrofit sales were $643 million, compared with $616 million in the same period in 2022. In the second quarter, retrofit sales totaled $333 million.
North America remained the dominant market, accounting for 72.9 percent of first-half avionics sales.
"This quarterly report makes clear that the industry is seeing a recent surge in forward-fit sales, which has topped more than $400 million in three of the past four quarters," said AEA president and CEO Mike Adamson. "The retrofit market appears to have more modest growth."