Analysis of AMSTAT industry data by Colibri Aircraft, a private jet broker which specialises in the marketing, resale and purchase of pre-owned private aircraft, has found that 154 pre-owned private jets were bought in Europe last year, with an estimated total value of US$1.01 billion. The number of pre-owned jets sold in Europe in 2019 was 152.
The average price per pre-owned jet purchased in Europe last year was US$6.54 million, which shows that prices remained fairly steady as demand for business aviation during the Covid-19 crisis remained strong. In January 2021, for example, the number of business aviation flights globally was only down by 9.1% compared to the same month in 2020.
Colibri Aircraft’s analysis reveals that Germany saw the largest number of pre-owned business aircraft sales in 2020 – 32 private jets were bought worth an estimated US$127 million. The second-largest market by value of aircraft sales was the UK, which saw 14 private jets bought, worth a total of US$118.2 million. This was followed by Malta, which saw 16 pre-owned business aircraft bought for collectively US$112.1 million.
| Country | US$ value of business aircraft bought in 2020 (top 10 countries by size of market) | Number of business aircraft bought in 2020 | Number of business aircraft bought in 2019 |
| Germany | $127.1 million | 32 | 33 |
| UK | $118.2 million | 14 | 5 |
| Malta | $112.1 million | 16 | 10 |
| Luxembourg | $108.5 million | 8 | 8 |
| France | $95.4 million | 12 | 15 |
| Austria | $62.8 million | 5 | 16 |
| Switzerland | $54.8 million | 8 | 6 |
| Isle of Man | $40.7 million | 5 | 9 |
| Netherlands | $36.8 million | 3 | 3 |
| Finland | $36.3 million | 3 | 0 |
| Europe | $1.008 billion | 154 | 152 |
The European private jet market has held up well during the coronavirus crisis. There were 41,154 business aviation departures in Europe in 2020, which was only down by 22.8% on 2019 (based on Eurocontrol data).
Between April 2020 and December 2020, the number of commercial aviation departures in Europe was down between 88% and 51% on a monthly basis when compared to the same months in 2019.
Our research also shows that the sale of pre-owned private jets has remained strong, and this has potentially been supported by first-time buyers – people who are now interested in buying their own jet because of the crisis.
