It comes with the old saw of “buy low and sell high” as we have been taught from the beginning of business 101. In recent years the grim reaper seems to have gripped the economy and there seems to be a lot of gloom and doom in every corner of the business aviation industry. The good news for those that are looking to purchase a business jet is that this is a buyer’s market.
The industry is seeing good prices throughout each class of jet available. The used jet marketplace is seeing great pricing for those in the market and the charter business is still pretty solid which makes owning a decent option. This is not to say that all of the used jets on the market are a good buy. A buyers market can be a great time to purchase but when buying you must do your homework to make sure that what you are getting is truly a bargain.
Due to the increased inventory and the lower prices it can be a tough choice as to which jet may be the best to put into your asset column. With the economy may jets are being repossessed or have sat without being used for a while and their maintenance may not be up to date, costing the potential buyer a large fee to get it up to date. Paying attention to the jet you are buying is important. You should have someone that is an expert in assessing value based on the needs you have and the information provided by the seller to make your purchase the best possible it can be.
In the tougher economic times that we have today, there is bound to be some fallout with businesses and their employees. Cessna is apparently encountering that same problem now. AIN reports that there may be a possible strike looming in the future over at Cessna:
Cessna Aircraft made a new contract proposal on Monday that was immediately rejected by machinist union leadership, with the recommendation that its members follow suit in a vote set for Saturday. The seven-year contract offer by Cessna was described by president, chairman and CEO Jack Pelton as “very fair, given the extraordinary challenges we are facing in our economy and in our industry.” Union District 70 president Steve Rooney disagreed in no uncertain terms. He said rather than asking for a short-term sacrifice to help the company through bad economic times, Cessna was asking for permanent cuts over seven years. Rooney alleges that the Wichita-based aircraft manufacturer used the economic downturn as an opportunity “to gut the contract and saddle employees with extreme and punitive measures.” Union members are scheduled to vote on Saturday by simple majority whether to accept or reject the contract. If a majority reject the contract, union members will then be asked to vote a second time on whether to approve a strike, which will require a two-thirds majority. If the membership does not vote to approve a strike, the contract will be accepted by default. If they vote to strike, the work stoppage would begin at 12:01 a.m. on Monday, which could bring the Citation production lines to a standstill.
With few contracts being written for new business aircraft and even many of the orders now placed being canceled, manufacturers are beginning to scale back their operations and in that case part of where cuts are made will have an impact on workers. I hope that this can be avoided. We will see over the weekend if the work stoppage occurs.
After reading about Avtrak in some aviation news I had a look at there operation. They are here close to me in my area and I wanted to get familiar with their operation. AIN reports that Avtrak is expanding its operations in Mexico and is soon growing beyond its capacity at its current location and will be moving its headquarters to Centennial Airport in Colorado. This is good news for companies in the aviation industry and it shows that this company is working hard to get ahead during down times. Their VP of marketing, Dennis Steinbeck, echos that sentiment in his statement to AIN, “We are one of the fortunate companies that have been expanding during one of the worst times in our industry.”
Avtrak is a maintenance tracking company and from their site they state:
Avtrak’s easy to use, web based services are recognized as the preferred maintenance tracking service by maintenance professionals worldwide. Avtrak’s services are considered the perfect blend of technology and highly qualified support people.
It is good to see that there are companies still expanding and growing and taking advantage of their hard work during this time of difficulty in the economy. If they can do it, I am positive we can all benefit from some hard work and some hustle.
