Worldwide sales of avionics for general aviation aircraft rose nearly 22 percent to more than $2.8 billion in 2022 compared with 2021 sales, according to the Aircraft Electronics Association. The industry group said the percentage increase in sales is the largest year-over-year bump it has seen in the 11-year history of its Avionics Market Report.
During the fourth quarter, sales increased 31 percent compared to the same period a year earlier, which is the highest quarterly increase in the report’s history, the AEA said. Fourth-quarter sales rose 7.2 percent compared with the third quarter, marking the tenth consecutive quarter of increasing sales, AEA officials added.
“We have seen yearly sales rebound the last two years despite supply chain constraints and a tight labor market,” said AEA president and CEO Mike Adamson. “While it’s encouraging to see a record-breaking percentage increase in year-over-year avionics sales, the industry is still rebounding from the economic impact of the pandemic. The $2.8 billion in sales for 2022 falls short of the 2019 year-end sales when industry notched a record $3 billion just prior to the international health crisis, but we are trending in the right direction with positive gains over the past 10 quarters,” Adamson said.
The retrofit market for avionics installed after an aircraft’s original production accounted for 48.2 percent of total sales in 2022, while avionics installed by aircraft manufacturers during original production totaled 51 percent of sales, the AEA said.
Companies that separated their sales figures between the U.S. and Canada and other international markets said 74.9 percent of their sales during 2022 took place in the U.S and Canada and 25.1 percent took place in other markets.
The AEA said it began releasing its Avionics Market Report on March 26, 2013, during the 56th annual AEA International Convention & Trade Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Before that, the industry group said, there was no “effort to capture the true dollar size of the business and general aviation avionics market.”
