According to TripAdvisor’s 2013 Air Travel Survey, 25% of respondents would choose one airline over another if it offered wifi. Though you might not associate fire-sale prices with private aircrafts, new research from Gama Aviation shows that one in eight of Great Britain’s nearly 600 private jets are for sale, and for good prices, too.
The average asking price of the some 78 jets, which range between “entry-level” planes that seat just four passengers to small airliners, is £3.2 million (about $4.94 million USD). That may not sound like a “bargain,” but according to Gama Aviation’s chief marketing officer, it becomes a buyer’s market when one in 10 private planes are up for sale. So with one in eight up for grabs, savvy negotiators should be able to snap up a bargain price for an aircraft.
“There is a tremendous amount of downward pressure as people are buckling up and stopping being wasteful,” said Alireza Ittihadeh, UK director of aircraft broker Freestream, which has more than 40 planes valued at a total upwards of $1 billion for sale. “When companies look at their balance sheet the first thing to go is the jet, or where they used to operate two they decide to get by on just one.”
Ittihadeh went on to say that tougher economic times also mean that private jets capable of flying long distance aren’t used for short trips as they at one time were. Instead, many executives choose to fly on scheduled airlines rather than travel on their own planes.
This is not all that surprising. WINGX Advance, a market intelligence provider for the aviation industry, found that in 2012 the private jet industry was basically stagnant, and had even declined 4% in Europe. At the same, CNN reports that aircraft charter services are doing well.
So if you’re in the market for a new plane, now is the time to buy.