Page 8 - March 2022

“There are more buyers than aircraft and unlike real estate, the builders of new airplanes can’t gear up and build their way out of this.”
writing about the King Air market, we do acquisitions for all types of turbine aircraft and all the vari- ous aircraft markets are crazy. In fact, some are worse than King Airs.
For instance, the Embraer Phenom 100/300 prices have soared, if you can find an airplane at all. We are very involved in the Pilatus market as well (don’t hate me King Air aficionados!) and its mar- ket is crazy as well. We helped a client purchase a 2019 PC-12 NG last November, and similar air- planes are being listed for hundreds of thousands of dollars more than the in- flated price we paid to buy the airplane and close by year-end for tax purposes. As I write this, there’s a
PC-12 NGX listed for $7,995,000! That is over $2 million more than a brand-new one sells for, but it’s a
moot point because you can’t get a new one until 2025!
The same is true of all manufac- turers of new aircraft. I think Q4 is currently the earliest slot for just about any aircraft and by the time you read this it will probably be 2023.
So, what is the state of the market? It’s crazy and prices are stupid. It’s definitely a supply and demand issue. There are more buyers than aircraft and unlike real estate, the builders of new airplanes can’t gear up and build their way out of this. How long will it last? Your guess is as good as mine, but it isn’t likely to change until some major outside factor changes the market.
The reality is there have always been considerably more people who could afford private aviation than those who participated in
it. Those folks have avoided pri- vate air travel because they were ›
6 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
MARCH 2022