Would-be buyers are beginning to outnumber sellers in the used business jet market for one of the first times in almost a decade, according to one of the industry's most influential aircraft trading companies.

"Almost overnight, [the industry has] gone from having too many aircraft to not enough," says Pascal Bachmann, head of aircraft sales at Jetcraft. "Before the second half of last year, you might be lucky to get one offer. Now for every aircraft we have sold, we have been getting at least one offer. We definitely see a market that's improving."

An active pre-owned sector and an inventory of for-sale aircraft of less than 10% of the fleet are generally seen as precursors to improving new-aircraft deliveries as a lack of availability of heavily discounted nearly-new aircraft drives purchasers to order factory models.

Jetcraft's latest annual 10-year forecast reflects its upbeat short-term outlook. It predicts 8,349 deliveries and an increase in the installed fleet of just over 21,000 jets to more than 28,000 by 2026.

It says super-large, ultra-long-range, and airliner-derived aircraft will constitute 31% of all deliveries and more than 60% of revenue, with Bombardier (29.2%) and Cessna (27.3%) leading in terms of revenue and units, respectively.

In the pre-owned market, residual values "will continue to experience downward pressure well into the front end of the forecast horizon", it says.

Jetcraft – which has three aircraft on the static display this year – was founded in 1962.

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Source: Flight Daily News