Purchase a Plane

What do you do to buy a plane?

What matters is: new or used; airplanes, privately owned turbines or reciprocating airplanes. The purchase of new aeroplanes is made either directly by the producer or by a distributor. Minor airplanes, among them some very lightweight planes, are marketed through distributors in the USA. Second-hand planes are generally acquired and resold through a broker, similar to a home purchase.

Often small reciprocating airplanes are purchased and resold directly on notice board at privately held airport and via sales by owners or WOMs. Only a small proportion of large airplane purchasers "medicate" themselves and buy used goods directly; a smaller proportion sells themselves (partly via their pilots). Actually, some fliers are good airplane agents - but that's because they made a deliberate choice to make airplane brokering a part of their careers.

Generally, a flyer will fly (and perhaps coordinate maintenance), a real estate agent will buy and sell, and a real estate agent commission will pay off. Few deals have as many "levers" as a used plane purchase and there are many ways to use them. Usually the first stage of a broker is to perform a missions profiling analysis: missions, passengers, etc.

The year 2020 will see the start of new demands on aviation electronics; these up-grades can be quite costly for jet engines and will open up a whole new "can of worms" when purchased. One of the keys in the used car sector is whether you want to upgrade an airplane yourself (in which case you can have an interieur to your liking and specifications) or buy something turnkey?

When the former, you would be looking for an aeroplane that needs interiors, paintwork and probably also one that has a home exam due (as they largely dismantle the aeroplane in this process). This may take a while - the last several purchases I made were 6-9 month in the decision-making and up to 3 more n in the purchase.

The sale is a different procedure, but a similar time frame if you choose the top Dollar. It also has fiscal consequences and things become more complicated when you replace an airplane and therefore need a scheduling policy.