Market Dynamics – Business Jet and Civil Helicopter Pre-Owned Market Q4 2024

In Q4 2024, ASG saw a stronger Q4 vs. both 2023 and 2022, with more deals closing and significant inventory absorption. A traditionally strong December for transactions led to a 10.0% drop in global pre-owned business jet inventory value, bringing it down to approximately USD 8.67 billion compared to Q3, when the market nearly reached the USD 10 billion milestone – which was last seen in 2016.

Long Range Jets: Market Dominance

The Long Range Jet category saw a USD 268 million decline in inventory value but remained the dominant segment, increasing its market share by 2.4% to account for 49.5% of total pre-owned jet value despite high transaction levels. The latest generation of Long Range Jets, including Gulfstream’s G500 and G600 and Bombardier’s Global 6500 and 7500, continued to hold significant market value in their category. These models had a below-average supply level but saw strong transaction activity, reflecting their market demand compared to other aircraft in the segment. Meanwhile, the Gulfstream G550 dominated the pre-owned market with the highest transaction volume (21 sales) in Q4, remaining as a cornerstone of the sector due to its high availability and sustained market demand over the years.

Large Jets: High Transactions Drive Inventory Absorption

The Large Jet category also saw significant consumption, with high sales activity contributing to a USD 389 million drop in inventory value. This was primarily due to the Challenger 605 and Falcon 2000 series, which accounted for approximately USD 315 million of market value consumption.

Asia-Pacific Pre-owned Market
At the end of Q4 2024, the total inventory value in the Asia-Pacific region declined by USD 47 million compared to the previous quarter. Consistent with global trends, the Large Jet category saw the most significant drop, decreasing by USD 78 million. The Medium Jet segment also declined, with inventory value down by USD 40 million. The Light Jet category experienced a decrease of USD 11 million. Meanwhile, inventory values for the Corporate Airliner and Long Range categories in Asia-Pacific remained unchanged from the previous quarter.

Supply Levels & Days on Market
In Q4 2024, more latest-generation aircraft were added into the pre-owned market, causing rising inventory values. The percentage of aircraft for sale continued increasing, indicating more supply availability. However, sales activity remained below pre-pandemic levels. The average days on the market continued to increase, particularly in the Asia-Pacific market, where jets usually take longer to sell. While global pricing softened, Asia-Pacific’s asking prices remained higher but faced downward pressure as supply outpaced demand/transactions.

The above chart reflects where certain aircraft models are positioned in terms of supply and demand (based on a ratio of completed transactions compared to the number of sellers and the average number of days on the market for a transaction to take place).

For some model types, given the market indicators shown on the previous page, the stabilization in pre owned asking prices and decline in inventory level appear to have stimulated increased demand, leading to an increase in transactions and a more balanced state of supply and demand.

These indications do not necessarily mean that prices will be higher in the future, but it does indicate that sellers of these particular models are more likely to find willing buyers in a shorter period of time than on average.

This can be seen the most with certain Gulfstream (G200, G450, G550, G650), Bombardier (Challenger 604/605 & Global 5000) and Dassault Falcon models (2000 Series and 7X), where more transactions are occurring relative to the number for sale, and transactions are requiring less time on the market for sellers to complete.

The above chart provides a visual representation of the supply / demand ratio of each aircraft model relative to the overall market, and is based on a “Marketability” calculation for each particular model including the following four market indicators:

1. The percentage of aircraft for sale relative to its fleet size.
2. The number of aircraft sold relative to the average number for sale.
3. The average days for sale relative to the overall market average.
4. The momentum of the marketplace (represented by the trend
   towards supply and demand market equilibrium portrayed earlier).

When taking into account these four factors, most of the large and medium sized jets, such as the Challenger 600, Falcon 2000 & 900 Series, as well as various Gulfstream models, appear better positioned to find buyers available, compared to corporate airliner models. Asian Sky Group expanded its market research scope in Q4 2024 to include 42 business jet models including light jet models as described in the report.

At the end of 2024, the total inventory value of the global preowned helicopter market stood at USD 1,099 million, maintaining stability compared to the end of Q3. This represented a USD 93 million increase, or 9.3%, from the end of 2023, with the Single category experiencing the most significant growth, rising by USD 85 million. Among all helicopter models, the Bell 407 had the highest inventory value, totaling USD 111 million, which accounted for 10.1% of the total market inventory.

Single-turbine helicopters accounted for USD 480 million (43.7% of total inventory), rising USD 26 million from Q3, with a notable change seen in Airbus AS350B2. The Leonardo AW109SP GN topped the Light Twin category at USD 86 million. Medium Twins fell USD 27 million to USD 257 million, whilst the Airbus H225 was the only model that was openly listed for sale in the Heavy category, with six listings. Compared to the global market, the inventory value in the Asia-Pacific helicopter market grew significantly. It increased from USD 132 million at the end of Q3 to USD 150 million by the end of

Q4, representing growth of 13.2%. Compared to the end of 2023, inventory in the region grew by a substantial 53.0%. The Single category saw the most growth, with an increase of USD 10 million. This was primarily driven by the Airbus H125, which saw its listings in the Asia-Pacific region rise from three in Q3 to seven in Q4, leading to an inventory value increase of USD 10 million. Both the Medium Twin and Light Twin categories saw small increases in inventory, with their values accounting for 29.0% and 25.8% of the total inventory, respectively.

In Q4 2024, there were 162 transactions in the global helicopter market, a decrease of 3.6% from Q3. Compared to Q4 2023, the decline was more significant, at 13.8%, with the three models of Single Turbine helicopters seeing the largest decrease in transactions. The Bell 206L-3 Longranger experienced a decrease of 12 units, while Airbus AS350B2 and Bell 206B-3 Jetranger saw nine and eight drop respectively. In Q4 2024, Single-turbine helicopters had the highest transaction volume, with 110 units sold. The Airbus H125 led the category with 25 transactions, followed by the Bell 206B-3 Jet Ranger (19) and the Bell 407 (18). In the Medium Twin category, 28 helicopters were sold, with the Leonardo AW139 leading the pack (nine), followed by the Bell 412EP (seven) and the Sikorsky S76C++ (six). In the Light Twin category, the Leonardo AW109SP GN was the most popular model, with seven units sold. Only four helicopters were sold in the Heavy category, with three of them being Airbus H225s.

At the end of 2024, the global percentage of helicopters available for sale stood at 2.8%. On ASG’s watchlist of popular turbine helicopters, a total of 425 listings were on the market, a modest increase of two units from Q3, but 38 more than at the end of 2023. The Single category had a slight increase in percentage of fleet for sale, while the Medium Twin saw the largest drop, from 2.8% to 2.5%. The Light Twin led with 3.1% available, and the Heavy category had the lowest at 1.2%. In the Asia- Pacific region, the percentage of fleet for sale rose from 2.2% to 2.4%, the region’s highest in 2024.

The average Days on Market for helicopters globally increased slightly to 376 days, up from 368 at the end of Q3. This rise was primarily driven by longer average Days on Market in the Light Twin and Single turbine helicopters, which together represented 83.1% of all helicopters listed for sale. In the Asia-Pacific region, with seven more listings of helicopters in the market, the average Days on Market remain nearly unchanged (303 days) compared to Q3.

The above chart reflects where certain aircraft models are positioned in terms of supply and demand (based on a ratio of completed transactions compared to the number of sellers, and average number of days on the market for a transaction to take place).

The above chart provides a visual representation of the supply / demand ratio of each aircraft model relative to the overall market, resulting in a “Marketability” calculation of each particular model based on the following four market indicators:

1. The percentage of aircraft for sale relative to its fleet size.
2. The number of aircraft sold relative to the average number for sale.
3. The average days for sale relative to the overall market average.
4. The momentum of the marketplace (represented by the trend towards supply and demand market equilibrium portrayed earlier).