Aviation website GlobalAir.com recorded a banner month in September for potential buyers inquiring about private airplanes listed for sale online.
The 2,276 inquiries about airplanes listed on GlobalAir.com in September 2021 rank second only to the 2,283 inquiries in February 2021. Year to year for September, inquiries are up 45 percent. This marks three consecutive years of intensive growth in the number of aircraft inquiries on the site.
The 2021 aircraft world remains a sellers’ market with demand red hot
The surge of interest in available aircraft comes despite the aviation industry seeing historic lows in the number of used aircraft for sale on the market.
“Despite the reduction of the number of planes out there being sold since the pandemic, this shows that demand is still roaring when it comes to people looking to buy aircraft,” said Jeff Carrithers, President and CEO of GlobalAir.com. “It also underlines what we’ve been seeing all year, in that more people are turning to us, not only when it comes to buying and selling airplanes, but the many online services we offer to support the aviation community.”
Hunter Weiss, President of Welsch Aviation, the oldest continuously operated private aircraft brokerage in America, said he has noticed a four-stage cycle that’s driving the supply-and-demand rift.
“It’s taken a perfect storm to create the current market,” he said, noting that the slowed production of new aircraft has created a lack of availability of used aircraft. “Then the people with some element of resources have started to charter aircraft, so the charter companies have increased their desire of planes.”
Moreover, Weiss said, additional first-time owners of private jets of even more means have started buying aircraft at various price points. These factors, coupled to the fact that the acquisition of aircraft out of Canada and Western Europe were unavailable for some time during the COVID-19 pandemic, have further exacerbated the situation.
Giovanni Luciolli, managing director of JupitAir, an aircraft and yacht brokerage in Monaco, said he recently sold a Dassault Falcon 900EX from Manilla to a buyer in Texas, practically over a Zoom conference call. He added that he is getting offers within a day of an aircraft being posted online.
“It’s dry,” he said of the aircraft market. “There’s nothing left.”
GlobalAir.com sees overall traffic growth through first 3 quarters of 2021
The latest data on aircraft for sale inquiries follow a larger trend of audience growth for GlobalAir.com. The number of total site visitors for the first nine months of 2021 is 13.5 percent higher, year to year. The number of visitors for September 2021 is 16.7 percent higher than in September 2020, and the number of first-time visitors for 2021 compared to the prior year is up 12 percent.
“Despite being a trusted online source in the aviation world for 25 years now, we continue to build momentum,” Carrithers said. “Even in these unparalleled times, we find new ways to engage our site users and for our clients to get results.”
