Used Private Jets Now Fetch More Than New Ones as Delivery Waits Reach 3-4 Years and 'Flipping' Gains Hit About $10 Million

Used private jets are trading at higher prices than new ones because ordering a new aircraft means waiting three to four years for delivery. Near-new aircraft just one or two years old offer essentially the same performance as new models and can be delivered immediately, so deals are closing even at elevated prices. Barbara Pansadoro, a partner at aviation finance law firm Addleshaw Goddard, said wealthy buyers who do not want to wait are turning to used jets.

The supply bottleneck is attributed to production disruptions that have persisted since the COVID-19 pandemic and a shortage of skilled labor, with casting and forging component procurement also tight. Manufacturers have been unable to ramp up output while order backlogs lengthen. On the demand side, newly wealthy individuals from artificial intelligence, information technology and cryptocurrency have emerged as new buyers, seeing jets as business tools that cut travel time and give them control over their schedules.

As prices climb, 'flipping' — reselling a newly delivered aircraft at a markup — has become a profit model, with some gains of around 13 billion won (approximately $9.8 million) reported. Oliver Tebbit, a partner at law firm HFW, said anyone taking delivery of a new large private jet is likely to find buyers in the resale market. Mike Francis, head of Citigroup's aviation finance division, told the Financial Times that if there is an opportunity to make $10 million without effort, there is little reason to turn it down.

US tax changes are also contributing. Under legislation enacted last year, assets meeting certain requirements, such as business-use private jets, can be fully deducted as depreciation in the year use begins, greatly reducing the upfront tax burden. Justin Crabbe, CEO of jet trading platform Jetly, said some companies are buying jets to capture tax savings rather than for genuine operational need. Purchased aircraft can also be leased to other customers for ancillary income.

Fractional ownership, in which several people co-own a jet and split usage hours, is growing rapidly, with Flexjet and NetJets among the leading players. Flexjet CEO Michael Silvestro said wealthy people who once waited until their mid-50s to use private jets now start actively using them in their 40s. The US is the largest market, home to about two-thirds of the world's private jets, while the UK ranks sixth globally with more than 500 registered private jets.

A used aircraft priced above a new one is a price for time, not for hardware. With delivery slots three to four years out, the scarce asset is an available airframe, and any buyer or intermediary holding a slot or a near-new aircraft effectively holds an option that the market is currently valuing highly. That is why flipping works as a profit model: the premium accrues to whoever controls early delivery.

For manufacturers, long backlogs are reassuring on revenue but carry scheduling and penalty exposure as delays lengthen. For aviation financiers, rising collateral values look favourable today, yet depreciation-based finance products assume used aircraft lose value against new ones; if that relationship stays inverted, those assumptions need revisiting. Fractional ownership and leasing operators can absorb the waiting demand, and the tax-driven purchases mentioned by Jetly's Crabbe add a buyer group motivated by deductions rather than flying hours.

The premium is only as durable as the supply constraint behind it. If production disruptions, labor shortages and casting and forging procurement ease and delivery waits shorten, the margin for flippers and the pricing of near-new aircraft could narrow quickly. The signals that would show the shift are manufacturers' delivery timelines and the gap between used and new pricing.