The preowned aircraft market is improving dramatically, with all trends in the “right direction.”
That was the message from International Aircraft Dealers Association Chairman Paul Kirby during a recent webinar looking at where the preowned aircraft sales industry is amid the economic fallout from the Coronavirus pandemic.
“May was generally better than April, and…we all anticipate June to even be significantly better than May,” he said during the webinar. “And so, the trends are all in the right direction.”
“The end of the travel restrictions, the end of the lockdowns, it’s all had the positive effect that we all hoped for,” said Kirby, who is also executive vice president for QS Partners in Boulder, Colorado.
But what about prices?
“Generally speaking, those have been thoughtful, strategic price reductions that haven’t been completely out of whack and haven’t cratered any one specific market,” he noted.
“For the first time we’ve heard a sentiment from a couple of different buyers saying, ‘I’m afraid I’ve missed the bottom.’ And I don’t know if they’re right or not. I hope they are,” he added.
IADA Executive Director Wayne Starling, in Boise, Idaho, reinforced that message: “In talking with a number of the dealers around the country this past week, everybody talked about two, three, four deals. I talked to different dealers and five claimed they’re trying to close right now. So, I’m expecting our June numbers to really jump, and I’ll be really anxious to see the chart next month…because it appears as though the recovery is coming back at really high speed.”
The full webinar was viewed by 550 IADA members. A shortened version of the IADA webinar is available on IADA’s website and YouTube.
IADA is a professional trade association formed more than 25 years ago, promoting the growth and public understanding of the aircraft resale industry. IADA offers the world’s only accreditation program for dealer organizations and the only certification program for individual brokers.