Aircraft Sales

We will listen and understand your perspectives on the purchase, the intended capabilities of an aircraft and how you wish to put your aircraft to work for you. This we call the 'mission profile'.

We’ll help you plan where you base your aircraft, identify your departure points and your most frequently visited destinations, domestic and international. Together, we will consider if they are likely to be predominantly well served urban hubs with full airport facilities, or more remote airfields or landing strips. Less developed destinations may require your aircraft to be more robust, depending on local conditions and facilities on the ground.

The number of passengers; colleagues, clients, family members or friends you plan to fly as well as your requirements in the air for connectivity, comfort and work productivity are both equally important to think about. For example, you may be planning to hold in-person or remote satellite comms-enabled meetings on board. Of course, these mission profiles and priorities need to be balanced against budget questions.

We can discuss with you the pros and cons of purchasing new or pre-owned. Newer pre-owned aircraft have higher purchase prices but lower operating costs as the aircraft may still be on warranty. Older aircraft have lower ownership costs and higher operating costs and you make get a bigger, better equipped aircraft for your budget in certain cases.

Our advice may include a lifecycle plan and presenting the options for how the purchase will be financed. There are a number of different financing structures that now include operating leases, as well as the traditional finance leases. We’ll look at the tax liabilities and where should you best register your aircraft. We can also provide guidance on options for the management of your aircraft, whether you should make it available for charter by others and the feasibility of establishing your own flight department.

Once we have a sense for your mission profiles and budget, we can move to the second step of the process.

In most cases following our initial discussions, we’ll offer a few types of aircraft that meet your criteria and fall within your initial cost and operating budgets. These will vary greatly depending on type, size and age of the model. Based on your budget and typical mission profiles, we suggest a selection of aircraft classes and models by range, capabilities and manufacturer.

We always endeavor to focus the range of options as much as possible to fit your typical mission profile. There will likely be some discussion about what are the must-haves for your aircraft versus the nice-to-haves. It is important to avoid over-buying; you should be buying an aircraft for your everyday trip profile, not for the occasional flight with a different profile - for example a longer journey, or more passengers.

Once a specific aircraft type and airframe serial number are selected, we will help draft a Letter of Intent (LOI) to make an offer on the preferred aircraft. This is a non-binding contractual document that outlines the basic terms and possible conditions of the offer. A fully refundable deposit is also included to confirm the seriousness of the interest and paid into a third-party escrow agent.

Pre-owned aircraft are often purchased in an ‘As-Is, Where Is’ condition, meaning the buyer’s purchase is dependent upon on no physical modifications being made to the aircraft. We’ll guide you with defining any potential conditions that the vendor will need to comply with in order for you to accept the aircraft.

Conditions may include no damage history, a complete and current set of logs, and the agreement that the aircraft will be delivered in airworthy condition with all maintenance current and completed. On acceptance of the LOI by the vendor we are ready to move on to the next step of the process.

We can now conduct a visual inspection to ensure that the aircraft meets the specifications and basic requirements of the LOI. Following acceptance of this visual inspection we can move to the Purchase Agreement phase, which may require a couple of weeks to complete. One party will take the responsibility of drafting the purchase agreement which will be exchanged until the terms and conditions are mutually acceptable. The purchase agreement should be a straightforward document that roadmaps both your and the vendor’s obligations, a timeline and a way out clause in the event that the deal doesn’t progress as anticipated.

Following the signing of the purchase agreement, the aircraft is now put through a rigorous pre-purchase inspection. We will support you in selecting the inspection facility. Factors such as aircraft age, history and maintenance record mean the inspection can take anywhere from 10-20 working days.

Based on the findings of the inspection both ourselves and seller receive a detailed report. You have the right to accept the aircraft as it stands or conditionally upon the vendor’s correction of any airworthiness issues that are reported. If you accept it conditionally, the vendor will authorize the inspection facility to correct the remedial work at his expense. When this is completed and the aircraft meets the conditions of the purchase agreement, the aircraft is returned to service and we may proceed to the final step of the purchase.

This is the final stage of the deal process. The appointed escrow agent, as an independent party to the transaction, will facilitate the closing call during which you and the seller will confirm that all the conditions agreed to in the purchase agreement have been met and that closing can proceed. Closing is a series of timely steps in which payments are made, liens are released, de-registration and re-registration are completed and finally warranty bills of sale and titles are exchanged from the seller to yourself.

That’s it. You are now the proud owner of your new aircraft.