Colibri Aircraft sees a big increase in private jet first time buyers

Colibri Aircraft, which specialises in the marketing, resale and purchase of pre-owned private aircraft, says it has seen a dramatic increase in the number of clients buying a private jet for the first-time.

Some 21% of the pre-owned aircraft it has sold this year have gone to first-time buyers – a 50% increase on 2014. The average price of a jet it has sold to a first time-buyer in 2017 is $3.68 million.

The overall increase in first-time buyers has also contributed to a rise in the number of pre-owned private jets being sold. New analysis by Colibri Aircraft reveals that, globally, 1,103 pre-owned jets have been sold this year so far compared to 979 for the whole of 2016. For Europe alone, the corresponding figures are 89 and 95.

The company believes the growing number of first-time buyers is being fuelled by the rapidly increasing number of high net worth individuals, the falling price of jets across all segments, and the big increase in people chartering private jets for the first time and then deciding they want their own aircraft instead.

August 2017 was the busiest ever August for business aviation activity in Europe, when there were 78,785 departures, a rise of 5.5% year-on-year. By August 2017, London had seen a 9.3% year-on-year increase in business aircraft departures.

Oliver Stone (pictured), managing director of Colibri Aircraft, said: “There is a rapidly increasing number of high net worth and ultra-high net worth individuals, and this means a bigger base of potential private jet owners. In Europe, there are around 3.94 millionaires and this is set to increase by 11% to 4.36 million by 2016.

“All of this is leading to more people chartering private jets and, for some of those that do this, they eventually decide they want to own their own aircraft.”