Whether it is trying to scratch the surface to figure out what is underneath or looking around the corner to figure out what is next, the desire is the same. What will 2019 bring for us all involved in business aviation? What will be holdovers from a very successful 2018 and what might settle back into what we have learned to live with for the proceeding 10 years? The key to this question will be the global demand versus the global supply. During this past year, we have all learned to work with high demand and lower corresponding supply. These lessons have found us more willing to import aircraft and consider that extra effort and cost to be the new normal. These extra steps for acquisitions for our North American clients have just become what is normal when mounting a search. Regardless of the dynamics between demand and supply, the North American market is still the most active with the highest level of transactional activity.
Conventional wisdom has that dynamic remaining a constant for some years to come. Although many of what were the emerging markets have reemerged as active bastions of activity, Europe is probably second to North America for transactions and that will likely remain the same for some time to come. At the Corporate Jet Investor conference last month in Miami, one of the questions posed to the audience of some 350 leading aircraft lenders, aviation tax and legal experts, management companies, and appraisers, as well as brokers was: "When do you believe there will be a downturn in our market growth?"
Jay Mesinger is the CEO and Founder of Mesinger Jet Sales, an international aircraft brokerage firm, and has been regularly contributing to AIN since 2018.
