2025 was a record year for business aviation. GAMA just confirmed it: shipments up 11%, billings up 16%. The industry moved more aircraft and more money than it ever has.
That's genuinely good news. And it's also when things start going wrong for buyers.
What bull markets do to decision-making
When the market is hot, two things happen simultaneously — and neither is good for buyers acting alone.
First, inventory tightens. Sellers know they have leverage. Aircraft that would have sat on the market for six months two years ago now move in six weeks. The pressure to decide quickly is real, and sellers know it.
Second, the quality of advice in the market degrades. Every record cycle attracts people who weren't in the room during the last correction. New brokers, new platforms, new "consultants" who've never managed an aircraft through a maintenance event, a title dispute, or a pre-buy that uncovered something the seller didn't disclose.
The buyers who get hurt in hot markets aren't stupid. They're just rushed — and surrounded by people who have every incentive to keep the deal moving and none to slow it down.
The pre-buy problem
Pre-buy inspections are where most acquisition risk gets uncovered — or buried.
In a normal market, a buyer has time to choose their inspection facility, schedule thoroughly, and walk away from findings without feeling like they're losing the aircraft to the next bidder. In a hot market, that leverage disappears. Sellers push for fast inspections at facilities they recommend. Buyers, afraid of losing the deal, accept conditions they'd normally push back on.
The result: inspections that miss things. Or inspections that find things — and buyers who accept them anyway because they don't want to start over.
We've seen aircraft change hands with deferred maintenance buried in the records. With damage history that wasn't volunteered. With logbook entries that required a trained eye to interpret correctly. None of that is unusual. What's unusual is catching it when you're in a hurry and the seller's broker is calling twice a day.
The relationship question
Here's the dynamic that separates buyers who navigate hot markets well from those who don't.
The buyers who avoid costly mistakes aren't necessarily smarter or more experienced in aviation. They've just built a relationship with an advisor before they needed one.
That distinction matters. When you already know your mission profile, your budget ceiling, and your dealbreakers — and your advisor already knows your operation — the due diligence process doesn't start at the LOI. It starts months earlier, when you're watching the market together and building a shortlist of what you'd actually want to own.
By the time an aircraft comes available that fits, you're not starting from scratch under pressure. You're executing a plan you've already thought through.
What the records mean for buyers right now
Record billings and shipments tell you the market is deep and active. They don't tell you whether any specific aircraft is priced fairly, maintained properly, or right for your operation.
Those questions don't get answered by market data. They get answered by someone who's done enough transactions to know what normal looks like — and who has no financial incentive to close your deal faster than you should.
The market is strong. That's good. It also means now is exactly the wrong time to treat this as a transaction you can manage without expert guidance.
