With a positive macroeconomic environment, business jet market fundamentals remained strong, including rising usage and transaction activity and steady aircraft availability and values. These trends supported the market’s stability and set the stage for continued momentum into 2026.between supply and demand during the quarter.
Global Economy
Global economic growth slowed to 2.5% in Q4/25 from an average of about 3% in the first three quarters of the year. Still, growth in the quarter was stronger than expected earlier in the year when economists were concerned about uncertainty following the White House’s announcement of new tariffs on several major U.S. trading partners.
Q4 marked a period of relative stability in the global economy, despite disruptions earlier in the year. In the U.S., inflation moderated, consumer spending remained resilient, and the housing market began to show signs of normalization. Internationally, inflation also eased during Q4, while the global economy remained resilient despite ongoing uncertainty.
Heading into 2026, uncertainty and geopolitical risk remain. Economists have become increasingly optimistic, however, forecasting resilience will carry over into 2026. The IMF expects the global economy will grow 3.3% in 2026, an improvement of 0.2 percentage points from its October 2025 forecast. The World Bank forecasts global growth of 2.6%, also a 0.2 percentage point increase from its June 2025 projection, although noting persistent downside risks.
With steady economic growth and the wealth creation that accompanies it, the business jet market should be well supported in 2026.
Flight Operations
The strong demand for business aviation that emerged during the fall 2024 travel season carried into 2025, driving annual flight operations growth of 3.8%. Activity accelerated in the fourth quarter, rising 4.6% year over year. Growth was broad-based, with departures increasing 4.3% in North America and 5.4% in the rest of the world compared to Q4 2024. Fractional operations remained the leading growth segment, posting solid gains throughout the quarter.
Departures in Q4/25 increased 0.7% from Q3/25, roughly in line with the 1.1% sequential growth seen in Q4/24 and an improvement over the 2.1% decline recorded in Q4/23. With activity reaching elevated levels in 2025, total flight operations ended the year 3% higher overall than in 2022, the previous peak year for departures.
This strong performance underscores the consistent expansion of the business aviation user base over the past five years. Supported by the industry’s core value propositions — personal safety, flexibility, productivity and comfort — flight operations are expected to remain resilient in future periods.
OEM Backlogs
OEM backlogs (excluding Dassault, which has not reported as of publication time) rose 10.4% year over year in Q4/25, reaching $53.6 billion. Manufacturers continued making progress resolving supply chain and labor issues, with deliveries gradually increasing during the quarter. Industry-wide book-to-bill ratios were strong during the quarter even as deliveries and revenue increased, demonstrating continued strong demand for new business jets. Lead times among major manufacturers remained between 18 and 24 months, supporting current delivery levels into 2026 while maintaining a healthy backlog
Transactions ($ Volume)
Note that the latest figures from 2025 reflect preliminary data and may increase as more transactions are reported to data providers.
In 2025, overall transaction dollar volume increased 9.7% compared to 2024. After a 0.4% year-over-year decline in Q2/25, activity rebounded sharply in Q3, with transaction volume rising 20.5% versus Q3/24. Growth moderated but remained positive in Q4, as transaction volume increased 3.5% year over year. For the full year, business jet transaction dollar volume was evenly split between new deliveries and pre-owned transactions, reflecting a stable and healthy market environment.
New deliveries grew steadily throughout 2025, reflecting a “new normal” in aircraft production levels from the lows of the pandemic. Though meaningful supply chain and labor constraints remain, OEMs have largely normalized their manufacturing and have kept backlogs relatively steady. As a result, new delivery dollar volume rose 6.1% compared to 2024. Though early reporting indicated that new unit deliveries declined 1.2%, it should be noted that not all 2025 deliveries had been reported at the time of publication, and this figure is expected to increase as reporting is finalized.
The pre-owned market also performed well in 2025, with unit volume expanding 17.8% in Q4 and 13.5% for the full year. Momentum in the pre-owned market has remained steady since late 2024, underscoring sustained demand for business jets. This strength is expected to be carried into 2026 as operators continue to upgrade their fleets and bonus depreciation incentives support additional purchasing activity.
For Sale Inventory
Aircraft listings declined 5.6% year over year in Q4/25, largely in line with the 5.8% decline in new listings for the full year.
In 2021, strong market activity led to many transactions involving unlisted aircraft, supporting a 25.3% drop in public listings when compared to 2019. From early 2022 through mid-2024, however, sellers gradually returned to publicly listing their aircraft, bringing activity back in line with historical norms and driving an increase in new listings.
As the market stabilized in late 2024 and 2025, listings began to decline once again. The composition of those listings has also shifted since 2019. In 2019, aircraft aged 13 years or older accounted for 58.4% of listings; by 2025, that share had risen to 69.6%. Meanwhile, listings for aircraft aged 12 years or younger fell 20.1% over the same period and made up just 30.4% of total listings in 2025.
In Q4/25, aircraft availability declined, falling from 7.6% of the total fleet in Q3/25 to 6.9%. Availability at the end of the quarter was also lower than the 7.5% recorded at the end of Q4/24 and well below the historical average of roughly 10%. This decline was driven by fewer new listings and continued strength in the pre-owned market throughout late 2024 and 2025. The period of stability followed a stretch of rising availability, as more aircraft were publicly listed during 2023 and 2024.
Availability among aircraft 12 years old and younger was lower than that of older models in Q4/25, standing at 4.0% of the fleet, down from 5.0% in Q4 2024. In contrast, availability of aircraft aged 13 years and older was 8.4%, a modest decline from 8.8% a year earlier.
The relationship between supply and demand is expected to remain balanced in 2026, with steady listings and availability continuing to track below historical averages.
Residual Value
The above chart compares the year-over-year percentage change in the bluebook value of like-aged aircraft over time (e.g., the difference between the value of an eight-year-old aircraft from one year to the next). Global Jet Capital analyzes a basket of aircraft as a proxy for the overall market. Values vary on a model-by-model basis and observed increases or decreases in value are not necessarily applicable to any specific aircraft make/model. For the value of a specific aircraft, please contact a licensed aircraft appraiser.
In Q4/25, aircraft bluebook values for like-aged aircraft increased 0.4% from Q4/24, extending a trend of relative stability that began in late 2023. Between Q3 and Q4/25, aggregate values fell 0.6%, remaining broadly in line with historical patterns.
This period of relative stability followed significant value gains between 2021 and 2023, driven by strong demand and limited availability for business jets. By 2023, aircraft availability began to normalize, restoring balance between supply and demand and contributing to the current phase of price stability. Although availability declined in Q4, stability largely continued during the quarter.
Despite this overall steadiness, value trends varied across the installed base in Q4/25. As noted earlier, availability of older aircraft remained higher than that of younger aircraft. As a result, values for aircraft aged 13 years and older declined 0.7% during the quarter as they continued to normalize following the gains recorded between 2021 and 2023. In contrast, values for aircraft 12 years and younger increased modestly, rising 0.8%.
It is worth noting that business jets are depreciating assets and a steady decline in the price of an aircraft over its lifespan is to be expected. The current consensus among industry players is that supply and demand are well-balanced and should support stable aircraft values in the foreseeable future, economic uncertainty notwithstanding.
