Totally agree, you can charter for less. You can also go to the local gas station and get coffee for less than Starbucks. But Starbucks always has line?

Charter, lacks service consistency. You can find a good charter service, but then you run into things like:

1. The plane you want isn't available.
2. They don't have anything available on the dates you want.
3. There is a maintenance issue and they don't have backup or it's going to be 3-5 hour wait.
4. Have to pay for repositioning flights to get to you.
5. The plane is dirty.
6. Pilots sick and no backup.

For premium companies like NetJets and FlexJets, it's one phone call, with guaranteed service availability (per your contract), with the plane you contract with or better, and known rates from point to point. Starbucks vs. the local gas station, you pay 2-3x more, but you get exactly what you pay for and they will correct deficiencies. That is how the NetJets of world position themselves.

I think they all have their place depending on your travel needs and expectations. From my experience, people start with charters. Once they are committed to private air travel, but have some poor charter experiences, they start looking at fractionals for service consistency.

I think I've heard - or read somewhere, that the best "deal" in jets is for 2-4 like minded/ "work with" and somewhat flexible families to own a jet together, have it managed with pilots (contract or full time) on-board with the program.

Feels like that would be sweet spot between sole ownership & Net Jets.

We actually see this quite a lot, several of our clients have partnerships on their aircraft. It’s been interesting to watch these partnerships be formed and evolve over time, it’s common for a partner to exit and another come on board. It’s also common for one partner to upgrade beyond the others needs and the minor partners transition into full ownership of a smaller aircraft.

Inventory levels are still very low, maybe worse than last year on popular aircraft. We are seeing an increase in inventory in several models, both in aircraft that had skyrocketing prices like the PC-12 and in aircraft that are having an inordinate amount of service difficulties because of supply chain and support problems.

What are you seeing for pricing? Down from the peak?

All depends on the model of aircraft, it seems that Hawkers, Challengers, Beechjets, Premiers, etc. are trending down. Legacy Citations seem to be softening, but all other Citations are still going up. King Airs of all variety are basically unobtanium right now. We're having some luck in the $3M - $5M price range but buying a King Air for less than $2.5M is really challenging. The Mustang market has been good to us, it's up in price, but stable and there are good airplanes available.

We are watching the Phenom 100 and Pilatus markets closely, seems to be a lot more for sale, but we're not seeing prices drop much. I suspect the next few months may offer some opportunities.

Last week, my son suggested that I look at TAP. The number of Skylanes and Cirrus listed has skyrocketed.

Jg

I saw the same. I’ve been starting to look at some G3 SR22s and there are quite a few that have been owned for less than 2 years and they are back on the market. I wonder how many bit off more than they can chew or if they threw some radios in and are trying to make some bucks on the flip.

There's a King Air early model on here that hasn't sold. Seller keeps lowering the price. It's now down to $225K from $295K. Sure, it's a got a submarine panel, but that tells me everything I need to know about the market. It ain't as stellar as people try to make out.

Actually that only tells you the market ain't as stellar for that particular model of King Air. The later C90b/GT/GTi/GTx, 200's of all stripes, and 350's is still very hot and competitive. That particular 90 you mention is going to take 'that one particular buyer', that wants it. The rest of the KA fleet, everyone wants.

Just my .02, anyway.

Actually that only tells you the market ain't as stellar for that particular model of King Air. The later C90b/GT/GTi/GTx, 200's of all stripes, and 350's is still very hot and competitive. That particular 90 you mention is going to take 'that one particular buyer', that wants it. The rest of the KA fleet, everyone wants.

Just my .02, anyway.

That is a textbook case of a liability vs asset

In a sound market all boats rise. Not just a chosen few.

That could not be an further from the truth!!!!!

Seen any Sabre 65's selling lately? How about Jetstream 31's?

The misconception is that there's such a thing as an "aircraft market" when in fact there is not, there are dozens of aircraft markets that work pretty independent of each other, sure there's typically some correlation, but it is not one cohesive market.

The price of a used 172 and a new Gulfstream 650 have nothing to do with each other. One market can be up while the other is down.

When you look at my part of the market, which is business turboprops and jets, there is some cohesiveness, but it is still a bunch of sub-markets that make up the business aircraft market.

Not only will supply chain issues cause the perceived value of one airplane to drop, but that will cause the value of another airplane to rise as operators shift from the issue airpalne to the non-issue airpalne.

That’s a nice old KA. Problem is folks who can afford to operate it can also afford to spend a lot more on the “admission” ticket. Thus, it’s market is actually shopping a little higher up the food chain.