According to figures released today by business aviation data company Amstat, the long hoped-for “broad based business aircraft resale market recovery still remains elusive.” While inventories of pre-owned business aircraft continued to contract and transaction activity continues to increase on a year-over-year basis, the rate of improvement slowed in the third quarter, it said.

At the end of the quarter, 13.4 percent of the business jet fleet was on the pre-owned market. Though this was down from 14 percent a year ago, it did mark a slight increase from the 13.3 percent reported at the end of the second quarter.

Pre-owned turboprop inventory, however, continued to improve, according to Amstat. Inventory of turboprops is now down to 9.1 percent, a drop from 9.3 percent at the end of June and 2 percent below the 20-year average.

Business jet resale retail transactions were down 0.4 percentage points from the second quarter, settling at 2.4 percent at the end of last month. Transactions also decreased for turboprops on a quarter-over-quarter basis, falling 0.4 points to 2.1 percent. “The quarterly changes in transaction activity trends and the resulting ‘sawtooth’ appearance of the metrics charts reflect the current transitional phase of the market,” said Amstat executive vice president Tom Benson.

Despite the “short-term headwinds,” average asking prices for business jets and turboprops actually rose slightly, Amstat noted.