What are the most common mistakes, leading to regrets for private jet buyers after they’ve completed their purchases? Chris Kjelgaard finds out, learning how to avoid any such regrets becoming part of your experience...
Are there any common mistakes that the industry's leading aircraft brokers see buyers of private jets making? If so, what are they, and how can they be avoided?
According to the experts, there are fewer first-time buyers likely to be looking to buy a private jet in 2023 and 2024 than in 2021 and 2022. When the market is in its normal long-term state, first-time buyers represent about 5-7% of all purchasers – but “in the bull market” of 2022 they accounted for 35%, according to Dustin Cordier, Head of Global Sales for OGARAJETS. No wonder the market become so frenzied at that point, as hundreds, if not thousands of new buyers emerged to distort the picture.
Some of those peak-market first-time buyers have expressed regrets over their purchases, with some quickly deciding that being the owner of a business aircraft – particularly a business jet – was not for them, Cordier says.
Some aircraft bought by first-time buyers in 2021/2022 have already been re-sold. But why has that been the case?
While there are several reasons, probably the most common is that the buyers failed to perform the necessary due diligence, not digging deeply enough in their research to sensibly purchase an expensive asset that requires lots of subsequent expenditure to maintain and operate.
What many first-time buyers of business aircraft often don’t understand is that becoming the owner of a business jet “is more like adding a business unit to your home [or business] than it is like buying a car,” Cordier highlights.
This article was originally published by AvBuyer on November 27, 2023.
