Page 7 - March 25

The strength of the King Air
market has always been the vast
number of airframes produced.
However, most of the King Air fleet
was produced prior to the year 2000,
and a stunning fact I just discovered
is that the year 2000 was 25 YEARS
AGO!
The glory days of Beechcraft
production were the late 70s and
early 80s. Beech was building more
than 100 King Airs every year in the
early 1980s! Production numbers
have declined since. In fact, the
company delivered fewer than
2,800 King Airs of all models in
the past two and a half decades.
During that same time frame, nearly
4,000 turboprops that are direct
competitors to the Beechcraft King
Air have been manufactured – and
that number doesn’t count the
thousands of jets produced during
the same period.
Why doesn’t everyone buy a
TBM 850 or M2 instead of a C90B?
Or why not a Pilatus or CJ2+/CJ3
instead of a King Air B200/250?
Because there’s just nothing like
a King Air!
When you crunch all the numbers,
consider all the factors and weigh all
the pros and cons, it’s hard to beat
the venerable King Air.
Here is how the King Air market
looks by model. Feel free to give me
a call if you wish to discuss specific
details; there are too many models
and options to cover everything in
a single article.
King Air 90 Series
The King Air 90 series encom-
passes several models, primarily
divided by age roughly around the
C90A/B model break. The market
for legacy 90 series units is tight,
but there are a lot of airframes. It’s
tough to find a pedigree airplane
with Blackhawk engines and an up-
graded Garmin panel. If you’re less
picky, the legacy 90 series airplanes
can represent a good value. I’ve al-
ways been fond of the F90; it’s a lot
of airplane for the money. C90GTi
MARCH 2025 KING AIR MAGAZINE •
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