AMSTAT Maps Business Aircraft Market Trends

Business aircraft professions-be they broker, dealer, finance provider, fractional operator or OEM contractor-all need detailed information on the market and its trends. Booth 5775 at the convention provides one potential source of this intelligence: AMSTAT Corp.

Latest in the company's range of six customized intelligence products is the StatPak, of which demonstrations are being provided daily. Dividing the market into turboprops and three weight bands of business jet, StatPak shows five-year trends in graph form to provide customers with a clear picture of the corporate aviation world.

Four indicators of vitality are employed in each of the four sectors. Percentage of fleet inactive, set against the accepted norm of around 10%, is one measure-the turboprop market, for example, having climbed from this norm in August 1997 to 16% today. Number of resale transactions and number of days on the market are further indicators, as is asking price.

In the latter case, the trend is universally down by an average of 8% to 9% in recent years. However, lighter business jets are first to show recent signs of a secondhand market rally in that the steady rise in availability from 10% to 18.8% in 1997-2001 has now fallen marginally to 18.1%, showing greater utilization.

Opinions are many on what drives the market; some sophisticated models propose the inclusion of many economic and political factors. However, AMSTAT charts show a straight correlation between secondhand business aircraft sales and the national pre-tax profits index.

By Paul Jackson