AHGUIDE
The advantages of buying a pre-owned jet Business aviation is in higher demand today than it’s ever been. The Coronavirus has created challenges for commercial airlines, most notably: point-to-point flights. Nowadays, it’s very difficult to get a flight from your location to your required destination without multiple layovers and the associated transfers and delays. In the current state of affairs private aviation has never been more attractive by offering safety, convenience and efficiency for wealthy individuals. For those who’ve flown privately, it’s a truism to say that once you’ve tasted private aviation, you never want to go back. Given that it’s unlikely there will be a quick return to the levels of point-to-point travel seen prior to the pandemic any time soon, the market has never been stronger for business jets than it is right now. Unfortunately, this means that a customer placing an order today for a new aircraft will have to wait, in many cases, at least two 2 years before they can begin to fly their new jet. For Airbus Corporate Jets (ACJ) and Boeing Business Jets (BBJ) the wait is much longer. When you’re buying an aircraft in this range, you buy a “green” aircraft. This isn’t just a metaphorical term, the jet is literally green – the colour of the primer and, not only that, the cabin is completely empty. So it’s up to you as the owner to put together a team of people to design the interior, then have an outfitter put this all together with a myriad of suppliers. On average, an aircraft like this will take about 3 years from signing the purchase agreement to actually taking delivery. The current lead time to build and deliver a new aircraft is hard to digest for an owner, particularly in this age of instant gratification, where we’re used to buying online and receiving goods a few days later. Waiting 2-3 years for an aircraft would be unacceptable to most, particularly if you need a private jet to travel because of the current problems with commercial flight. Aside from the lead time, when you buy a new aircraft, a buyer’s choice of layouts, features and finishes is limited to what the manufacturer offers in their portfolio of options. In many cases, wanting a custom layout or a unique feature just isn’t possible. Manufacturers are unable to provide this level of customisation as their production simply isn’t that flexible. To see what this can mean for you, let’s look at the interior of two large aircraft, on the left is a Bombardier Global 6000 and on the right is a Gulfstream 650ER:
