How to Purchase Your First Preowned Business Jet – BJT

with the cost of pre-owned Jets coming down this is an opportune time for business ship travelers to consider moving up to full ownership of an aircraft we spoke to some industry insiders about this value proposition a learning aircraft is not for everybody it really depends on how much use you have for an airplane normally we think 150 to 175 hours of usage it's really the break point where you should go from chartering an aircraft to actually buying an airplane if you actually have 200 hours of use you really want the flexibility to be able to have an airplane at your beck and call we see people who have had some experience with aircraft either through charter but primarily maybe say through a fractional share or a jet Club of some sort the worst thing that can happen when you're buying an aircraft for the first time and it happens quite frequently is that they say my friend told me that they have such and such an airplane and it's a great airplane and I should buy one and that's a big mistake because what your friend has has nothing to do with what you need so you really need to be educated on what chair planes fit your profile you want to know how much you want to spend how far you want to go how many people you have to carry and really how old of an airplane you are willing to own once you decide to purchase an aircraft you have to choose between new and pre-owned for many pre-owned can make more sense the prices for pre-owned aircraft have continued to slide downward and in fact recently at the National Aviation Finance Association conference they were talking about evaluating differently depreciation schedules where we have looked at three to four percent per annum off the declining balance now it's more like 7 to 10 percent today it's actually a very good market to buy it's a buyers market there are a lot of airplanes available so you do have a pretty steep discount for pre-owned airplane compared to a new airplane like the plane behind me for instance a new version of that airplane will probably cost 42 and a half million dollars and this one can be bought for thirty four thirty five million dollars so it's a great advantage and it's a brand new plane it's only two years old it's got still warranty left so you do get instant reward you get a great deal sometimes new models of aircraft will have growing pains and pilot training can be costly when you have a new aircraft new technologically advanced aircraft sometimes they have issues that have to be ironed out for the first few months or first hundred hours of the airplane and also just for the pilots familiarization if you have a new model introduced into the market there are not as many pilots that have been flying that model airplane for a long time as in any specialized market it helps to have an expert on your side to make sure the purchase goes smoothly so when you're in the market and you are looking for an airplane first of all it's very important to have the right people around you and the right advice especially on the pre-owned market because an airplane can be a good airplane or a bad airplane depending on its history the way was maintained the way was flown so a small mistake can cost you a lot of money so you do have to be diligent and you do have to hire professionals to help you around finding the right airplane so when you choose a broker obviously you're going to go through your selection process and the main issue when you look for a good broker is which do they have do they have the right airplanes in their inventory that you're looking for and do they have the right expertise both from a financial and market value perspective but also from a technical perspective get a better choice of different models of different airplanes that are around the world obviously if you're just calling a manufacturer they want to sell you just their brand even if it's in the pre-owned market but if you really want to know how one airplane compares to another a broker has a wider net that's covering different models and different airplanes of the same model and usually they can measure one against the other to see how you can find the best value in the best airplane you want to know exactly first of all if the airplane is less than five years old it's on a warranty program so that gives you more of a defining budget going forward after five year period the warranty will go away so you have to and more to your operating budget to cover maintenance items you want to make sure the engines are on certain insurance programs you want to look at the the pilots as far as if you need to or if you need three or four depending on how many hours you're flying refurbishing the interior to suit your taste is relatively inexpensive compared with the cost of the aircraft however it's important to find an aircraft that already has the best basic configuration for your needs changing carpets and wall coverings is easy moving walls and seats is not when you look for an airplane the first important thing is the configuration because reconfiguring an airplane will actually cost a lot of money and wouldn't make much sense for somebody to buy a plane and do a complete reconfiguration you can change the interior that carpets the seat covers the wood colors for much less than people think redoing soft goods wood veneers plating there are plenty of companies around the world with that expertise that I would have no fear taking a client in fact it's an enjoyable process with the pre-owned airplane you can change the interior you cannot change the pedigree or maintenance history of an aircraft purchasing your own aircraft can be a satisfying experience just make sure you have expert help to assure you do it right

Channel: Business Jet Traveler

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Keywords: Business Jet (Industry), Aviation (Industry), How-to (Website Category), Investment (Industry), Aircraft (Type Of Fictional Setting), Dassault Falcon 7X (Aircraft Model), Bombardier Global Express (Aircraft Model), bombardier global 6000, Interior Design (Industry)

Id: iyMKCuNA7SY

Length: 5min 43sec (343 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 11 2015