Bring on 2012!

The last several years have proven to be a long hard road for our industry and it is not over yet.  I do, however, believe that we are on the right path and I am excited for 2012.

In 2011, we saw continued increasing activity in many segments of the market.  It was not consistent in all segments and the super mid-size corporate aircraft probably saw the least activity of all aircraft sizes.  As we faced continued global economic struggles and uncertainty buyers did continue to prevail by making extraordinary buys.  They often pushed for lower prices and got them, but not by dramatic drops of 10% or 20% like many thought they could.  Those big hits, and even bigger ones, were factored into our market earlier in the recession.  Instead, for the most part, the lower prices buyers were negotiating in 2011 were the last 1% or 2% or 3% from the already correctly market adjusted asking prices.

I think that even though the final sales prices were hard for many sellers to swallow, most buyers and sellers completed transactions walking away feeling like they made fair trades within the market conditions.  There were many buyers who missed out because they wanted more than sellers had to give, and there were some sellers who missed opportunities to sell because they weren’t willing to go far enough.  Some of the buyers who thought there should be even bigger price adjustments were misled by the media who reported regularly that prices were still falling.  Unfortunately, they only reported half of the story.  Most of the aircraft sellers who lowered their published asking prices by large percentages had aircraft which been on the market for long periods of time with asking prices which were long outdated.

The good news in 2011 was that there was a lot of activity and a lot of closed transactions.  I think that the same trend will continue through 2012.  At J. Mesinger Corporate Jet Sales, we are excited about the start of this new year and what lies ahead.  It won’t be easy, but nothing good ever really is.  We look forward to working with you this year.  Happy New Year.