I was reading recently a report that talked about the summer numbers and how we have been doing here in the United States in the business aviation market and the numbers don;t look as great as we would like them, but they are stabilizing a bit in this crushing economic downturn. The sales of some of the companies out there are non-existent and some are actually having a decent year overall considering what they are dealing with around them. The reports point to an ever increasing strength of the US Dollar. This does not necessarily translate into better news for the industry overall.
Part of the problem with the industry is not the fact that the dollar has been weak and that we are seeing difficulties here, the problem can also be attributed to the slide in the economy and tough market indicators in Europe. In certain market segments, the number of European-owned aircraft available
greatly exceeds the number of American-owned available aircraft. The slowing European economy has a bigger impact on the business jet
market than the strong dollar and this is a growing trend. We will have to see how they react to the economic slide and how that will change how we do business here in the United States.