Aero Asset has published its half-year report for the first half of 2023, which details the movements in the pre-owned twin-engine market. The report shows some interesting trends, notably that although sales in North America and Europe accounted for 75% of the transactions, sales volumes remained static while they grew in the remainder of the world. Another interesting trend was that despite supply continuing to rise from its nadir at the beginning of last year, absorption rates – the time it would take to exhaust the current supply if no more aircraft were added to the market – have likewise continued to rise as have average prices paid. Average prices are on the rise in all three categories, light, medium and heavy. Bucking the supply trend are the heavies, the available volume for which continues to decline.
The top performers by type for the first half were Leonardo’s A109E Power, the Bell 429 and the S-92A. The latter is perhaps not surprising as most of the aircraft not grounded for want of spares have returned to operations. Interestingly, although the sales of Bell 429s have risen by 200% over 2022 and the supply has fallen, so has the average price paid (down by US$250K)
Another interesting takeaway is the strong performance of S-76s, especially C+ and C++ variants, prices of which have risen again by $175K and $1.3m, respectively, compared with last year.
