Reduction in Jet Sales

21/02/2013 editor

HOW PRIVATE JETS HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY THE DOWNTURN

Over the recent years we have seen a huge rise in the number of private jets being manufactured, although the economic crisis has affected the number of private jets being sold in during this perido the industry is hoping that 2012 will be a turn around year, although this is anything but guaranteed.

With the global travel industry slowly recovering from a recession many would expect private jet travel to be one of the last sectors to bounce back.

From discussions that have taken place with the manufacturers it appears that the larger aircrafts still seem to be seeing good sales, but it is the smaller jets that have proven more difficult to shift.

One reason for this decrease in sales of smaller jets is due to the good stock of used aircrafts available at very attractive prices, like a car once you have taken off from the run way the price of the jet decreases by a substantial amount; the higher the plan reaches the lower its worth becomes.

It is apparent that 11% of the active fleet of business jets are currently available for sale and prices are very close to those of mid 1997.

Another indicator of customer confidence is booking lead times that now stand at an average booking time of 12 days. During the down turn it was apparent that there was a shift to short term planning, from the forward planning that was seen before the recession.

Increased price competitiveness from private jet operators and wider availability of air taxes or very light jets has also lowered the cost of private travel, and for a group traveling together, private charter can now be surprisingly cost effective per head, comparable with first class or business class fares.

It has also been noted how flight operations seem to be standing the test of time as the number of flights coming in and out of the country is definitely recovering. In the past 3 months operations have increased by 12%, with an average increase of 4% each month.

It appears that we are beginning to see a recovery from the depressed levels of 2009 but these are still well below the peak achieved in 2007.