Commander 695B Model 1000 courtesy of John Swift Despite what our cynicism tries to tell us about aircraft brokers, they don’t like to see unbalanced markets that favor sellers any more than they like soft markets that favor buyers. Not being able to find the right airplane for a buyer can be just as frustrating as not finding the right buyer for a seller.
Although we’re still not fully back to that nicely balanced traditional aircraft market, Twin Commander brokers Jim Worrell and Bruce Byerly said they think we’re beginning to plateau and inch back toward a more sane position. “I’m on track with Commander sales,” Worrell said. “But it’s the weirdest economy I’ve ever seen.” High interest rates and market uncertainty usually drive down demand, but so far, the Commander experts haven’t seen significant softening. Byerly said he’s pretty much sold out, and he’s closed four airplanes in the last month.
Worrell said he thinks things are down just a bit. Byerly calls it a plateau and a temporary respite from the unusual market conditions of the last three years.
And while there’s been a lot of talk about the light jet market also slowing down, Byerly said he’s not seeing it. He thinks overall, aircraft prices might be down 10 percent from the craziness of the fourth quarter of 2022, some of which could be attributed to seasonal variations.
Finally, VREF, the aircraft valuation service, says that prices on late-model Twin Commanders are pretty flat, which is further evidence of a market coming more into balance. “Those that have been waiting for the market to crash down have been disappointed,” Byerly said. “It’s not accelerating or continuing to deflate.”
Thankfully, one constant remains, and that’s Twin Commander’s unique position in the marketplace. “The airplane is still a heck of an airplane,” Worrell said. “It does everything.”
