Millions of years ago, scientists say, the dinosaurs were rendered extinct by a cataclysmic event that shook the world. Today, the dinosaurs among business aircraft could be facing their own extinction in the aftermath of the financial asteroid that threatened recently to obliterate the world’s economies. A recent report from corporate aviation information provider JetNet shows that while the pre-owned business jet market inventory is gradually diminishing, from 17.4 percent fleet availability in May last year to 15.3 percent this past May, the overall number of days on the market for pre-owned bizjets has increased by 72 percent over the same period, to an average of nearly a year.
For older aircraft such as the Challenger 601-3A (produced between 1987 and 1993), the 19 aircraft currently available have been on the market an average of more than 18 months, according to AircraftPost.com, a Web-based aircraft information service.
