The business jet market’s outlook and customer interest are now at post-crisis highs, according to the latest UBS Business Jet Market Index report released today. Now sitting at 51, the index score is 12 percent higher than that in UBS’s previous survey and the fourth consecutive monthly increase. In addition, this is only the fourth month that the index has surpassed 50—above which denotes strengthening market conditions—since mid-2008.
Fifty-five percent of survey respondents indicated that customer interest has improvedsince the U.S. presidential election, up from 47 percent a month ago. Business jet industry professionals told UBS that “some prospective buyers have come off the sidelines post-election.”
By aircraft category, the light and midsize jet indexes came in above 50, at 53 (up 7 percent sequentially) and 52 (up 15 percent). Though the market for large-cabin jets is still considered “weakening” with an index score of 46, this is 9 percent higher than a month ago.
The investment research firm’s index includes higher scores for every component: pricing, which rose 51 percent; pre-owned inventory, up 18 percent; 12-month outlook, up 8 percent; customer interest, up 7 percent; and willingness of dealers to increase inventory, up 3 percent. Notably, the outlook and customer interest scores—at 82 and 77, respectively—are “now in line with their post-financial-crisis highs.”
Customer interest remains strongest by far in North America, though scores also increased in Asia (+9 percent), Latin America (+7 percent) and the Middle East (+6 percent). Europe was roughly unchanged, UBS said.