Soaring Prices For Used Aircraft Appear To Be Leveling Off

Aircraft valuation specialist Sandhills Global (parent company for Controller, AviationTrader and Aircraft Cost Calculator among other outlets) noted that inventories for used aircraft in all classes, including piston singles, have increased and asking prices decreased in December 2022, dipping from historic highs seen the month before. Accordingly, Controller department manager Brant Washburn warned potentially greedy sellers, “Asking values for used aircraft still remain elevated, but as used inventory levels continue to trend upwards from the historical lows of early 2022, sellers need to carefully monitor aircraft value trends in the near future.”

Regarding U.S. and Canadian used piston singles, the market analyst’s equipment value index (EVI) reveals year-over-year (YOY) inventory levels that rose 78.2 percent in December. The number of used piston singles on the market dipped 4.5 percent from November to December but have trended up since the end of Q1 2022.

“Asking values decreased 0.66 percent month-over-month,” reported Sandhill, “but the long-term gains throughout 2022 placed asking values up 11.47 percent YOY in December."

Used turboprop aircraft inventory also increased YOY in December, but not as dramatically, at 10.19 percent, and numbers were up by 3.18 percent month-over-month—comparable to used pistons. “Prior to December,” Sandhill wrote, “turboprop aircraft inventory levels hadn’t registered in positive territory since Q4 2020.” Meanwhile, asking prices for turboprops dropped “considerably” from November to December, a total of 8.56 percent. But “Even with the high short-term drop, used turboprop asking values were up 18.72 percent YOY,” according to Sandhills.