New research from Colibri Aircraft, which specialises in the marketing, resale and purchase of pre-owned private aircraft, reveals stabilizing prices and sharply reduced depreciation across six diverse types of popular private jet.

The average asking price across these six models rose 1.56% over 2016.

In 2017 there was a sharp decrease in the rate of depreciation of private aircraft, and in select models even an increase in value. This is a significant turnaround following the previous nine years of consistently depreciating prices, including some of the sharpest decreases in value in the preceding four years.

The company says these developments are a result of a fall in the supply of pre-owned private jets for sale, an improving global economy, and an overall increase in demand.

Colibri Aircraft’s research reveals that for 2017, the average asking price was $9.145 million, up 1.56% on 2016 when the corresponding figure was $9.004 million. This compares to a fall in price of 17.32% between 2016 and 2015, and 11.9% between 2014 and 2015.

The six aircraft Colibri Aircraft analysed were: Cessna Citation CJ2, Cessna Citation Excel, Gulfstream G550, Bombardier Global XRS, Cessna Citation Mustang and Bombardier Lear 45.

Oliver Stone, Managing Director, Colibri Aircraft said: “After years of falling prices for pre-owned private jets, we are finally seeing them begin to stabilise. This is being driven by a fall in the supply of new and pre-owned jets coming on to the market, and an improving global economy, which tends to increase demand for business aircraft and helps to stabilize pricing."

Of the six private jet models reviewed, the mid-range Lear 45 jet saw its average pre-owned asking price decrease by 4.77% between 2016 and 2017 compared to a 17.14% decrease the previous year, while the Bombardier Global XRS, which is a very large ultra-long range jet, the average asking price for a pre-owned aircraft fell by 5.08%, compared to previous annual depreciations of 17.10%, 14.41% and 9.25%. These highlight the wider trend in private jet markets of stabilizing prices and much more muted price declines when compared to recent history. However, the larger Gulfstream G550 jet saw a rise of 8.63% (from $22.378 million to $24.308 million). This followed a surge in demand where transactions increased by 46% year-on-year.

Oliver Stone

The G550 was one of the more active markets in 2017 and was one of the examples of prices increasing. This is a notable difference from the previous year, where prices declined by 25.96%.