Janine Iannarelli, president of aircraft brokerage Par Avion Ltd., in Houston, Texas, said here at EBACE the preowned market remains choppy and unpredictable. Buyers are returning to light aircraft in the $2 to $5 million range, even as there’s been “a softening of sales in some recent production large cabin aircraft,” she said.

Activity in the U.S. has been constrained because, according Iannarelli, “We’ve lost the middle market in aircraft sales, the small and mid-cap companies, public and private, in the $100 million to $200 million range. They’re not buying.”

Meanwhile, the level of inventory on the market, remaining near historic highs, may be even greater than statistics indicate. “Percentages are not the right thing to look at,” she said. “Reports about the number of aircraft for sale are not taking into account aircraft withdrawn from the market because the owners are frustrated.”

While Iannarelli expressed optimism for an imminent turnaround, she acknowledged the market has confounded experts’ expectations for several years.