Although there was some expectation that VIP charter operator Royal Jet of Abu Dhabi would announce new firm orders for aircraft here at MEBA, Shane O’Hare, president and CEO, said yesterday that the company expects to make acquisitions in possibly six to 12 months. His reasoning is that the inventory of preowned business jets is increasing, bringing prices down on even good-quality aircraft, and that he expects delivery slots to become more available for new aircraft as the global economic crises continues.
To illustrate his first reason, O’Hare said BBJs bought in 2006 for $40 million were selling for $75 million earlier this year and that this price is now decreasing.
Regarding the second, he said that as airlines ground airplanes or fail, he expects that Airbus and Boeing will be seeing a lot more A319 and 737 cancellations, the two models that, respectively, are the basis for the ACJ and BBJ. In addition to these factors, the difficulty in obtaining financing to purchase aircraft and the backlogs of the completion centers are also putting a damper on sales.
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