Story ID: 
Used Business Aircraft Transactions on the Rise
By: Curt Epstein
Caption: Although pre-owned business aircraft sales are nowhere near the peaks of 18 months ago, the inventory of used aircraft is beginning to recede, according to
Word Count: 160
Although pre-owned business aircraft sales are nowhere near the peaks of 18 months ago, the inventory of used aircraft is beginning to recede, according to statistics released by industry data provider Amstat. The worldwide supply of available used business jets has decreased from a high of nearly 18 percent last summer to 16.2 percent in January, while resale activity nearly doubled from 1.5 percent of the global fleet in the first quarter of 2009 to 2.7 percent in the fourth quarter of last year. The New Jersey-based firm also noted that 12.2 percent of the turboprop fleet is currently available, down from a peak of more than 13 percent. While jet and turboprop inventories remain above their 20-year averages–12.4 percent for jets and 11.2 percent for turboprops–the rise in the rate of resale transactions over the past three quarters, particularly for business jets, led Amstat executive vice president Tom Benson to observe, “It would seem that for the pre-owned business aircraft market, the worst is probably behind us.”