A multi-engine, instrument rated pilot, James Wynbrandt has been an AIN and Business Jet Traveler contributor since 2003. His in-depth reporting and insightful features have won more than a dozen editorial honors, including two National Business Aviation Association Gold Wing Awards (2019; 2021), and his articles have also appeared in the New York Times, Barron’s, Fortune, Forbes, and Smithsonian Air &amp; Space. He has flown his Mooney M20K 252 on assignments throughout North and Central America and the Caribbean. Wynbrandt is also the author of Flying High (Wiley &amp; Sons), a biography of Jet Blue founder David Neeleman, as well as histories, references works, and books on a variety of other topics from major publishers. He lives in New York City.

Contributor - Business Aviation

James Wynbrandt

U.S.-based aircraft brokerage Avjet Global Sales is showcasing at MEBAA 2018 (Static [TBD]) a recently refurbished, low-time VIP Boeing 757, outfitted with a stunning interior “that’s sure to generate interest in the region,” said Marc Foulkrod, Avjet’s CEO.

 


MEBAA and Avjet (Chalet [TBD]) make a fitting pair, as the Middle East is a prime market for VIP airliners and large-cabin aircraft, and Avjet has concluded more than 450 aircraft transactions, primarily involving Gulfstream, Bombardier Global, BBJ, and other large-cabin airframes, worth in excess of $8 billion.

 


Avjet is noted for its rigorous market research. The brokerage retains the services of economists and consultants in valuing aircraft and forecasting pricing trends, and its own record of aircraft transactions provides invaluable proprietary data in representing clients on either side of a transaction, Foulkrod said. Avjet also provides research data to investment firms including JPMorgan, UBS Securities, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley.

 


Surveying the current Middle East preowned market, “Bargaining power has shifted from buyers to sellers in the region,” said Foulkrod. “Prices are strong for all but the oldest aircraft, and we are also beginning to see a slow shift from the region being a net seller of aircraft to a net buyer of aircraft, both new and preowned.”

 


But despite signs of a rebound, “Multiple uncertainties globally could derail momentum being built up,” he said, citing U.S. economic growth and the stability of currencies and interest rates worldwide among them. Significantly absent from his list of worries are concerns about tension in MEBAA’s backyard.

 


“I honestly don’t see risks or instabilities in the Middle East that exceed those in other regions,” Foulkrod said. “All regions have some form of instability. Europe is dealing with budget fallout from Italy and Brexit issues, while China and the U.S. are locked in a bitter trade war,” he added. “There are new administrations coming to power all over South America. There is instability everywhere at the moment.”

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