CJI Asia: ‘We have survived through this quite well’
The pre-owned aicraft market looks like a “perfect market” at the moment, according to Hamish Harding, founder and CEO, Action Aviation.
“Demand is international at the moment, and it is a good market because of the new buyers,” he said. Although there are more challenges to closing deals in a Covid-19 age, such as carrying out quality checks and getting the aircraft to the buyer, Harding expects the strong demand to continue.
“We might be looking at a change of guard, in America, closer to the end of this year. So, the demand for pre-owned will be high in the next three months with people trying to close deals before the 100% depreciation on pre-owned aircraft is removed.“
While this surge in end-of-year American activity will affect other parts of the aviation world, Harding believes the new normal will last for at least another year.
He is optimistic that business aviation will emerge stronger after 2020 and 2021, saying “We have survived through this quite well” compared with commercial airlines.
A film documenting Harding and his co-pilot, astronaut Terry Virts’s circumnavigation of Earth via the North and South pole in a Gulfstream G650ER has released on some streaming platforms. The team flew to mark the 50th year of the Apollo 11 moon landing and holds a Guinness World record for completing the flight in 46 hours.
