After almost three years of worldwide pandemic, when so many people changed the way they travelled, Binns wonders whether the market has now returned to the way it was before COVID. Are prices normalising or going back to pre-pandemic levels; will private charter numbers go up or down; and what will 2024 look like for business aviation?

Speculation since the beginning of 2023 is that prices on pre-owned aircraft are dropping, or at least balancing out, due to the fact that the OEMs are slowly catching up on production. There hasn't been a day gone by where a colleague hasn't said: “Oh, our clients may hold off to see if the pricing will drop or normalise." Our view, Binns says, is that prices have dropped across the board, some more so than others.

However, prices have not fallen back to pre-COVID times. There is still a significant shortage of supply for models such as Embraer’s Phenom 300E, Citation Latitude, Legacy 600 and 650. The high demand for these means that prices are still higher. He predicts this trend will continue into 2024.

While the total number of aircraft transactions has dropped worldwide, Aviate has seen its business go up significantly; a reflection of its network expansion, new client acquisition and wider service offerings. Requests for purchase of all the brands, Gulfstream, Bombardier, and increasingly for Embraer products, was at the forefront of its business throughout 2023, and the company is not seeing a slowdown yet.

On the charter brokerage front, global charter volume has remained robust and demand for private charters remains stable. Having said that, he notes there is downward pressure on charter rates as some of the clients who started using charter during the pandemic have now gone back to commercial travel. However, operators are facing increased operational costs due to global events driving fuel prices up.

The company aims to become a one stop shop for aviation. "All in all, as 2023 is wrapping up, it has proved to be a fruitful year for Aviate Aviation, with a lot of changes in the industry contributing to our success," says Binns. "We are looking forward to an exciting year ahead."