The Expert's Corner
Welcome to "The Expert's Corner", Boutsen Aviation's online news journal where you can see that "Our Experts Mean Business". Read about the latest happenings in the business aviation industry, learn about purchasing or selling private aircraft from members of our expert team, and discover in-depth spotlights on specific aircraft models.
We are also highlighting the experiences of other experts in their respective fields through a series of interviews with CEO's, industry pioneers, and other professionals that we are fortunate to be acquainted with. This series presents their personal thoughts on expanding career paths, life hacks, work values, and more.
Sourcing an Aircraft
Flying business jets has been an essential activity for the majority of developed corporations for quite some time. Therefore, the purchase of your own corporate jet or turboprop logically looks as the proper further step.
However, some things in life are easier said than done. They appear simple in theory, yet are in fact quite complex in practice.
Finding the perfect aircraft to suit your needs operates to this degree: It’s so straightforward, you might say, there are tons of airplanes for sale in the world and surely online I can find one that is just right for me. Well, yes and no.
To be precise, there are 21,789 business jets, 17,427 turboprops, and 23,277 turbine helicopters currently registered in the world. Yes, you do have access to all of these, thanks to the 1944 Chicago Convention (which dictates that all civil aircraft registries be publically accessible), but who has the time to comb through more than 60,000 listings?
But of course I would filter my options using the databases, you might argue, making the entire thing effortlessly simple. Not quite. Let us divulge a bit more.
Professional databases are an excellent resource for beginning the search. In fact, this is where our brokers, after being exclusively mandated, generally begin to source an aircraft for a client. Information such as specifications and contact details can be found here, and filtering options allow our brokers to narrow down precisely what they are looking for.
However, the simplicity ends here. How do you know if a listed aircraft is priced to market value? Is it a bargain or overpriced? Is technically reliable? How do you even know what questions to ask? And what if what you’re looking for is not showing up anywhere?
Databases only publish those aircraft that are considered “on market”, therefore you are likely missing out on a plethora of alternate options if you lack the resources to search and investigate the “off market” aircraft. Not to mention the complexities of obtaining the up-to-date information, documents, maintenance reports, and customs clearances that will all be necessary once an aircraft is found. It would entitle weeks and weeks of time and effort with no guarantee of success. Yes, it sounds overwhelming because it is. This is where our know-how comes in.
Boutsen Aviation has an extensive network of over 10,000 carefully curated and developed contacts in the private aviation industry. From brokers to owners, we’ve got the know-how and the means. Over our twenty years of experience in buying and selling aircraft (337 sold to-date in 51 countries across 5 continents), we know who to contact, how to approach them, and how to get the best deal. Knowing the intricacies of the market, such as its daily fluctuations and its complex patterns, is what allows us always act in the best interest of our clients, day in and day out.