This year’s NBAA Convention was about more than multimillion-dollar deals, flashy exhibits and rows of new business jets gleaming under the Georgia sun. To gauge the true importance of the event, one has to look beyond the scope of sales announced at the show–more than a billion dollars, unofficially–and at the origins of those deals. More than half of the orders placed for business airplanes this year have come from international buyers, especially those in Europe. According to Honeywell’s annual forecast, the industry is expected to deliver more than 1,000 business jets this year, an all-time record. Next year the figure is predicted to climb to 1,300.
“It’s quite remarkable,” said Gulfstream president Joe Lombardo. “In the second quarter our order intake on the international side was 51 percent, with 49 percent domestic. We’ve never seen anything like that before.” The industry, he said, is in the midst of a major expansion as businesses outside the U.S. grow and the weak dollar makes buying a business jet attractive. French manufacturer Dassault noted that from its perspective the trend is even more pronounced, with 70 percent of new sales this year coming from buyers outside the U.S. “I think that’s a fundamental change in the business and I think it’s here to stay,” Dassault Falcon president John Rosanvallon said.
