The second day of CJP 2023 offered attendees the opportunity to hear the latest news from key companies supporting the association, led by Platinum Plus Partner Textron Aviation.
Cody Honeyman, regional sales director for pre-owned aircraft, provided his annual market update on the Citation line. “We’re still seeing near-record low numbers of Citations for sale,” he said, with less than three percent of the fleet aged 10 years or newer on the pre-owned market.
While that means prices remain relatively high, “2023 has been a year of stabilization,” he continued. “We’ve seen more aircraft coming to market, and that’s helped in moving north towards a neutral market.”
Breaking it down by model, 4.7% of the Citation Mustang fleet is listed on sale, with the CJ1/CJ1+ at around eight percent. Citation M2 market availability is at three percent and growing, Honeyman added, “but what we’re seeing with the M2 that’s different than most others is a very high transaction rate at very good prices,” from the mid-$3 million range to low $5 million for older M2s and transaction prices in the six million range for Gen2 models.
Moving to the CJ2 and CJ2+, Honeyman noted a mere 3.3% of the fleet is for sale, “swinging toward a seller’s market.” The CJ3 remains stable at 4.4%, but “the real story is how much this airplane has appreciated over the last 24 months,” he said. “We’re nearing 40% appreciation. It’s absolutely unheard of.”
Around three percent of the CJ3+ fleet is on the market, with 4.1% of all CJ4 and CJ4 Gen2 aircraft for sale. “Values on these aircraft continue to impress,” Honeyman said of the CJ4 line. “The low end, you’re going to see the early CJ4 in that $6-7 million range; for the latest Gen2, we’re seeing asset prices that are nearly touching $30 million.
“Overall, we’re seeing very good demand for well-maintained Citations with good pedigrees,” he concluded. “Transaction values are still up, with between 20-40% increases over the last 24 months. The market is rewarding Citation owners that have good quality airplanes they’re bringing to the market and who have already planned ahead for the replacement airplane.”
Parts and Customer Support
Brian Rohloff, senior vice-president for customer support at Textron Aviation, noted the company’s recent first place finish in Aviation International News’ annual product support survey.
“All of these efforts are based on your feedback,” he said. “They come through industry surveys and customer advisory boards. They come from CJP through the regional events, annual events and the forums. There are a lot of us that are watching the forums every single day, which helps us drive improvements throughout the network.”
Steve Hansen, Textron Aviation’s director for parts distribution operations, joined Tracy Leopold, head of the company’s North American customer service organization, to discuss how they work together to ensure Citation pilots are able to access critical parts and repair services in a timely manner.
Hansen noted that, since Spring 2021, the parts team has handled “nearly two million phone calls, emails and communications from customers. We’ve resolved 56,000 different AOG events, and we’ve shipped well over three million line items.
“Everything we do at our organization revolves around the three key pillars: right part, right price, right team,” he continued. “We know that if we do those three things that will take care of the customer’s needs and help us all to be successful.”
In direct response to CJP member feedback, Leopold noted that Textron Aviation has also significantly revamped its customer portal.
“You guys gave us feedback that our customer portal was clunky, not easy and that you had to go to the website to use it,” she said. “We worked together with all of the teams to make it that one-stop shop. You can look at your programs status, order parts or schedule maintenance, all from an app on your phone or from your computer, anytime you might need to take care of that business.”