Industry Veteran Outlines the Full Process of Buying a Business Jet, from Mission Analysis to First Flight

Mike Mikolay, founder and CEO of Mikolay Jet Group, laid out the process of buying a business jet, drawing on more than 25 years in business aviation during which he has facilitated 950 aircraft transactions worth more than $14 billion. He said the process starts with defining the mission: frequent city pairs, required range, cabin size, baggage capacity, international travel needs, expected annual use and budget. Mikolay noted that buyers often arrive with a specific aircraft in mind but change course once they evaluate options in person, citing a first-time buyer who switched his selection entirely after seeing and flying several aircraft, with fit and finish proving decisive.

Once mission and budget are set, Mikolay assembles an acquisition team typically including an aviation attorney, tax and financial advisors, technical representatives, an insurance broker and, where necessary, a lender, stressing that delays in any one area can ripple through the entire transaction. On a recent large-cabin acquisition, the aircraft management company was brought in midway through the process to allow sufficient time to arrange insurance, crew and training before closing. He also described preparing a letter of intent covering purchase price, deposit and ground rules, after which counsel drafts a purchase agreement converting ambiguous terms into agreed deal points.

For pre-owned aircraft, Mikolay described the pre-buy inspection as a critical stage that, on a midsize or large jet, can take two weeks or longer and covers the aircraft's history, maintenance status, prior repairs, engines, airframe, avionics and other systems. He summarised his standard for handling inspection findings with the phrase: 'When you're explaining, you're losing.' He said closing requires escrow, title, registration and insurance to be coordinated simultaneously, with any liens cleared before ownership transfers, and recommended that the first flight after delivery be a business flight with the owner, noting that timing can carry tax implications including depreciation treatment.

The account describes acquisition as a coordination problem as much as a purchasing decision: mission definition, team assembly, deal terms, inspection and closing all depend on each other, and a slip in one area can delay the rest. This is how pre-owned jet transactions generally work at the midsize and large-cabin level, where the asking price is only one input and pending maintenance, equipment differences and cosmetic condition determine the aircraft's real value relative to that price.

The emphasis on bringing in the management company, insurance broker and lender early, rather than sequentially after a deal is struck, points to timing risk as the main variable buyers and brokers manage in practice, since crew, training and insurance arrangements can take longer to complete than the transaction paperwork itself. Mikolay's resale-focused standard for pre-buy findings also signals that inspection outcomes are judged against a future buyer's scrutiny, not just the current transaction's closing date.

What remains specific to each deal is how mission variables, budget and inspection findings interact for a given aircraft, since those figures were not generalized beyond the individual transactions described.