Aircraft brokerage and consulting services provider Mente Group is seeing a significant bump in its preowned business this year, but company president and CEO Brian Proctor cautions that a few headwinds could slow the activity over the next year.

He estimated that the Dallas-based firm will have 40 preowned transactions this year, which is as much as a 30 percent year-over-year increase. “The number of transactions has definitely increased,” said Proctor, who also chairs the recently renamed International Aircraft Dealers Association, adding this is an industry-wide trend. “The market has been good for everyone.”

However, even as demand should stay strong, he sees a cooling of preowned sales beginning this quarter and extending through next year for a couple of “structural” reasons.

First, he noted that with the looming 2020 ADS-B deadline, maintenance, repair, and overhaul shops will be flooded with upgrade work. This will pinch the availability for pre-purchase evaluations for preowned aircraft sales, backing up timing of transactions.

The second issue is availability. “We’ve seen an incredible contraction in availability in late-model airplanes. So it’s going to be harder and harder to find good equipment to buy,” Proctor said, pointing to the Gulfstream G280 as an example. Recently, he said, there were only two available in the world.

On the upside, he added, the aircraft manufacturers will benefit. Mente already has had two cases recently where customers ultimately opted for new aircraft because they could not find a suitable preowned model on a timely basis.

But for now, Mente is enjoying a solid boost in business. “It’s been a good year. We are pleased,” he added, “Rising tide raises all boats and we’re part of that.” But he also believes part of the success is the company’s approach to business.