What doesn’t stay in Vegas

opinion

by Alasdair Whyte

October 20, 2025

Amid the hundreds of announcements, three standout themes emerged from NBAA-BACE 2025.

The champagne lounge at The Cosmopolitan, Las Vegas is finally quiet. The high roller tables at the Wynn are empty. Forklift trucks are removing stands from the convention hall. The National Business Aviation Association’s (NBAA) Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (BACE) is over for another year.

It is impossible to keep up with the hundreds of announcements. But there were three standout themes.

First, the pre-owned market is on a hotter streak than a hustler throwing loaded craps dice. Second, manufacturers are doubling down on maintenance like the crowd watching the hustler. Third, most of the people at BACE are as optimistic as the crowds arriving into Harry Reid Airport every day.

The return of bonus depreciation following President Donald Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill means that many dealer-brokers are forecasting their best ever year. Some have already beaten their previous best. This is across the board: “Smaller aircraft buyers LOVE bonus depreciation,” says one broker. “And because their credit committees are their partners, they are prepared to act much faster but a lot of them also act at the last minute.”

Call your broker

If you are still considering buying an aircraft before the end of the year you need to act quickly. Many dealers have booked pre-purchase inspection (PPI) slots in advance, but these are running low. Stop reading this and call your broker and (just as importantly) your tax adviser now.

There were, of course, new aircraft announcements. Textron said the Cessna Citation M2 Gen2 with Garmin Autothrottles has received certification from the Federal Aviation Administration. It also brought its new Citation Ascend to the show. But many of the OEM announcements were about maintenance. Dassault Falcon Jet launched its new maintenance facility at Melbourne Orlando International Airport in Florida, while Gulfstream announced the opening of its new Texas repair and overhaul centre in Dallas-Fort Worth.

This reflects how maintenance or aircraft services are becoming increasingly important to aircraft manufacturers. In the next decade, service revenues are on track to become more important to OEMs than new aircraft sales. The unveiling of Bond – the new fractional operator which is outsourcing all maintenance to Bombardier – is a clear demonstration of this.

Bond is outsourcing

It also leaves the market with a fascinating split in strategies amongst operators. Bond is outsourcing all its maintenance to Bombardier to simplify operations, while Flexjet and Vista are increasingly bringing it in-house to have control. NetJets is using a mixture of independents and OEM support.

The final theme that ran through the vast majority of attendees is how well the business aviation industry is continuing to perform. Honeywell predicts 8,500 new business jets, worth $283bn, will be delivered over the next 10 years. This is the most optimistic report in the 34 years that the Tier One Supplier has been forecasting business aviation.

Global Jet Capital predicts that 3,778 business jet transactions worth $44.2bn will close in 2029, up from 3,383, worth $38.7bn, in 2025.

In its 2025 forecast the business jet financier is predicting that both the total number of transactions and the dollar amount will increase by an annual average of 3.9% for the next five years. A record 3,963 deals closed in 2021 worth $32.5bn.

“We are having a good year. We are blessed in terms of business, in terms of how the backlog is starting to build for 2026,” Vivek Kaushal, CEO, Global Jet Capital told CJI. “We like what we see in terms of the balance in the industry. We think it is a great signal for the market that book-to-bill ratios are right there at one-to-one, you’ve got significant backlogs and you’ve got orders coming in. The market is not overheated.”

There was a lot to celebrate at another expertly organised NBAA-BACE this year. And, even in the early hours of the morning, there was no shortage of people willing to do that.