Eastern Europe remains strong for used private aircraft

Marian Jancarik

The Central and Eastern European market for pre-owned business aircraft is stable and starting to show signs of year-to-year growth, according to new data from Colibri Aircraft.

Last year 34 transactions were recorded: 14 aircraft were bought from countries outside the region, 12 were sold outside of the region and eight remained within.

A total of seven new private jets were delivered to the Czech Republic, Poland, Moldavia, and Romania. Five of them were built by Embraer: two Legacy 650, two Phenom 300 and one Phenom 100. The other two were a Bombardier Challenger 350 and a Dassault Falcon 2000S.

Compared to the boom year 2007 when sixteen used aircraft transactions were recorded, the 2014 figures represent a significant increase. However, last year’s number of new aircraft deliveries is much lower than 2007, when thirteen new aircraft were delivered.

ALSO READ: Colibri opens new office in Slovakia

Marian Jancarik, the senior aircraft broker and asset advisor at the Colibri Aircraft’s office in Bratislava, Slovakia says: “The CEE aviation sectors were quite robust before the 2008 financial crisis, but this was the result of extraordinary growth and geopolitical change after the Soviet era when there was basically zero private aviation in the area.”

“Such a sudden economic upswing is unlikely to happen again, but the Eastern European market is now solid with moderate yet steady growth,” added Jancarik.

Asked about the current status of the prices of new and used planes, Jancarik said: “New aircraft are still sold with incentives such as discounts and maintenance packages. This has a strong influence on resale value which has resulted in almost continuous falling prices of used aircraft since 2008.”