Recovery Continues for Business Jet Market

The business jet market continues to recover, according to the latest monthly report on the industry from JPMorgan. The inventory of in-production pre-owned jets for sale fell to 11.9 percent of the fleet last month-the first time the figure has dropped below 12 percent since October 2008. However, while inventories of midsize and large-cabin jets decreased, the supply of available light jets increased slightly. Meanwhile, prices of pre-owned jets rose half a percent last month, but only due to a firming up in the large-cabin jet category--prices for light and midsize jets decreased about 2 percent. As for business jet flight operations, JPMorgan reported another double-digit year-over-year increase: Operations in May were up 12.5 percent from the same month in 2009, though this was down from the year-over-year increases of 19.1 percent in April and 24.4 percent in March.