A February 27 webinar hosted by jetAVIVA offered perspectives on the state of the market for the full line of Citation jets, which saw a 38 percent increase in inventory levels last year. While that steep figure may portend a downturn in sales and decline in aircraft values, company CEO Emily Deaton noted many reasons for continued optimism.
“We’ve also seen a really steady hold when it comes to demand, so the total number of transactions was slightly up year over year,” she added. “If we were to see a really high push on inventory, but those aircraft were not transacting, it would indicate something unhealthy going on in the market.
“In fact, as inventory continue to rise the number of airplanes transacting held steady, and that is keeping overall health in the industry pretty stable as we go into 2025,” Deacon added.
jetAVIVA personnel then broke down the current market for individual Citation models. Citation Mustang values continue to hover around $2 million, topping out in the low-$3MM range for hard-to-find 2016/2017 models.
“The last 18-24 months has been a message of stability,” said jetAVIVA’s Jade Hofeldt. “The Mustang market is about as stable as it comes, and it’s also one of the most liquid markets with between five and eight Mustangs transacting month over month, every month, over past 4-5 years. If you want a safe buy or a safe sell, the Mustang is typically always going to come through for you.”
The Citation M2 continues to enjoy fairly strong demand, helped by a healthy fleet of approximately 384 aircraft, including Gen2 models, and an enviable safety record for the type. “Right now, there’s around 27 M2s and another five or so Gen2 models on the market,” said David Hayes, jetAVIVA’s M2 sales director. “That runs around nine percent of the market.”
The CJ3 market saw a flat inventory level in 2024 with 22 CJ3 aircraft currently available, representing 5.5 percent of the fleet, with most aircraft priced between $4.5 and $5 million. “As we sit today, there are 22 CJ3 aircraft on the market, which is about five and a half percent of the fleet,” noted jetAVIVA’s Jason Deifik. “It’s obviously a great owner/pilot aircraft and, pound for pound, probably the best CJ that Textron [Aviation] has ever built.”
Somewhat lost in the middle is the CJ2 line, which “really saw an inventory spike last year,” Deifik continued. “Pricing has fallen to where we’re seeing asking prices now in the very low twos, up into the upper mid threes. There’s currently 30 aircraft out there, which is almost 13% of the fleet.”
An audience Q&A session followed, with additional discussion about Citation CJ4s and legacy Citation aircraft. Regardless of which Citation model someone may be looking for, “one of the biggest takeaways is simply that there’s a lot of data out there,” Deacon concluded. “There’s a lot of different trends, but at the end of the day [your best strategy] will be unique to your operation, your situation, your aircraft. That’s the kind of stuff we love to do, day-to-day.”