New Research Finds Business Aircraft Buyers Who Waited for a Softer Market Got a Tighter One

First National Capital Logo

First National Capital's mid-year analysis finds preowned business jet values rose 3% while transactions fell 10.5%, and identifies financing execution

IRVINE , CA, UNITED STATES, August 19, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- First National Capital Corporation, one of the largest independent providers of capital equipment and project financing in North America, today released Nothing Good Stays Listed, a mid-year research report examining how the business aviation market rewarded buyers who could execute through the first half of 2026 — and repriced the aircraft out from under buyers who paused.

The report revisits the firm’s February 2026 research on complex ownership structures and tests its central argument against a half-year that supplied an unusually clean experiment. When conflict broke out in late February, prospective buyers responded exactly as conventional wisdom advised: transaction activity turned negative through February and March as purchasers stepped back to let the uncertainty clear, expecting to re-engage into a softer market with more inventory and better negotiating position.

The market that greeted them in April was tighter and more expensive. Preowned business jet median values rose 3 percent in the first quarter even as transaction counts fell 10.5 percent year over year — sellers did not blink, inventory did not build, and the most desirable aircraft continued to trade within weeks of listing. The report’s conclusion is blunt: in a structurally supply-constrained market, waiting is not a hedge. It is a bid for whatever remains.
The analysis argues that the constraint separating buyers who acquired from buyers who watched was not price and was not access to credit. It was execution capability. Nearly two-thirds of aircraft valued above $10 million now involve multi-entity ownership arrangements — LLCs, trusts, and partnership structures that push traditional bank financing timelines to 68 to 100 days. Against a market where a well-pedigreed aircraft goes under contract in eleven days, that timeline is not a disadvantage. It is a disqualification. Buyers were not outbid; they were out-processed.

“Every buyer who paused in March believed they were managing risk,” said Greg Marks, Aviation Finance Leader at First National Capital Corporation. “What they were actually doing was surrendering position in a market that does not restock. The buyers who closed in the first half were not braver and they were not richer. They had financing that was already underwritten — ownership structure reviewed, residual parameters set, approval framework in place — before the aircraft appeared. In this market, financing capability is acquisition capability. There is no meaningful distinction between the two anymore.”

Looking to the second half, the report describes a compounding squeeze: the return of 100 percent bonus depreciation continues to pull acquisition demand toward year-end, inventory remains below historical norms, and every buyer who deferred in the first half will attempt to transact simultaneously inside the same fourth-quarter window — against finite inventory and finite closing capacity.

Nothing Good Stays Listed is the business aviation installment in a four-part mid-year research series from First National Capital Corporation, with companion reports covering manufacturing, oil and gas, and private equity. The aviation report draws on industry transaction and inventory data, dealer market reporting, OEM delivery figures, and First National’s proprietary aviation origination data across more than $1 billion in completed aviation financing.

The full report is available at firstncc.com. Media members may request a copy directly using the contact form below.

Keith Henry
Sawbux Marketing
+1 8592296715
email us here