As used aircraft values got pummeled over the last few quarters, it seemed that the buyers had all but disappeared. They hadn’t. Now that the inventory of most model types is at unprecedented highs and prices are at unprecedented lows, buyers are reemerging in more noticeable numbers and scoring big time on CJs to G550s, often executing a trade some 30- to 50-percent below the prices accepted at this time last year.
Some model types have arrived at a more predictable trading range and have stemmed the freefall in pricing, while others still search for that ground. In either case the rate of value deterioration has gotten, as many stock traders put it, less worse. Certainly buyers will have the upper hand for quite a while, but we could see the inventory, which appears to have stabilized, actually ratchet down. If you can assume that the sellers who placed their aircraft on the market in response to the economy hitting the skids have already done so, this should slow down the rate at which additional aircraft are added. With stable prices, slightly improved economic conditions and a re-emergence of buyers, the inventory curve could turn marginally lower.
