This year will be solid in terms of dollar volume of preowned business aircraft sales, but don’t expect 2020 to be record-breaking in terms of units, according to a new analysis by business aviation broker and consulting firm Mente Group. The Dallas-based firm sees a flat to a slightly down year in terms of the number of preowned aircraft that are sold.

“Generally, the business jet industry moved from a seller's market early in 2019 to a more balanced market at mid-year, while we ended the year as a predominately buyer's market,” said Mente Group president and CEO Brian Proctor.”We expect that trend to carry over into 2020 with perhaps fewer transactions and heightened price sensitivity for used business aircraft.”

The last two weeks of 2019 were active with high-dollar transactions and large business jets in play, according to Proctor. “From a dealer’s perspective, it was our highest transaction dollar volume in the past 10 years, and I expect that could be true for the industry in general.”

He expects a price-driven market in 2020, with the most activity occurring in the first and fourth quarters. And, buyers will be opportunistic. “Buyers are seeking value where they can find it,” Proctor explained. “A lot of wealth has been created in the last couple of years, and those buyers will continue to buy if and when they see good deals in the marketplace.”

Price sensitivity will put pressure on sellers and OEMs and their preowned and new business aircraft. “Sellers and new aircraft manufacturers are going to have to be very, very responsive to what's going on in the marketplace in 2020,” he added.