The market for pre-owned business aviation aircraft further stabilized through the end of last year, according to the International Aircraft Dealers Association’s (IADA) 2023 fourth-quarter market report.
IADA reported seeing “a subtle shift toward becoming a buyers’ market, with higher inventory and more reasonable prices.” The group expects a steady start to the new year but noted potential trouble spots, including a backlog carryover related to previous supply chain issues, disruptions because of global unrest, and uncertainties associated with a presidential election year in the U.S. The organization stated that the 2023 stabilization matched its previous predictions for the time period.
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“IADA members have been predicting a more stable marketplace for over a year, and the 2023 market performed as expected,” said IADA chairman Phil Winters. “Our quantitative and proprietary sales data shows that buyers and sellers are coming together with regard to asking and offering prices, a positive change from the overheated conditions we’ve seen since the onset of the pandemic.”
IADA’s quarterly report data comes from a survey sent to more than 1,000 of its members, including association-accredited dealers and their certified brokers, OEMs, and IADA products and services members. Dealers and brokers surveyed reported completing 554 pre-owned aircraft transactions during the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to 470 in Q4 2022. Year-over-year numbers saw similar improvement.
“While annual business jet resale volume for IADA dealers was about one and a half percent higher in 2023, a more telling statistic showed an increase of 123 agreements to sell exclusively and 149 fewer new acquisition agreements, compared to 2022, reflecting more sellers than buyers,” said IADA executive director Wayne Starling. “Overall, our dealers closed 1,422 pre-owned biz aircraft transactions in 2023, compared to 1,399 in 2022.”
Of its survey respondents, IADA found that three-quarters are expecting midsize and larger jet pricing to fall and inventories to grow over the next six months. Eighty-five percent report believing that demand across aircraft size categories will remain stable or drop slightly over the first half of the year.
