News

Pre-Owned Aircraft Inventory Levels Tighten as Downward Trends Continue

According to the latest Sandhills Global market reports, downward inventory trends continued in February for pre-owned jet aircraft, piston-single aircraft, and turboprop aircraft on Controller.com and other Sandhills platforms. Inventory levels decreased by more than 10% year over year in each of these markets. Asking price trend patterns remained unchanged since January, with used jets and turboprop aircraft trending down and used piston-single aircraft trending sideways.

Sandhills’ aviation products include Controller, Controller EMEA, Executive Controller, Charter Hub, Aviation Trader, Aircraft Cost Calculator, and AircraftValuation. AircraftValuation is Sandhills’ proprietary asset valuation tool for all types of aircraft, built using the same technology behind Value Insight Portal (VIP and VIP+). Widely used and trusted across equipment, truck, and trailer industries, VIP identifies asset values with unparalleled accuracy.

The key metric in all of Sandhills’ market reports is the Sandhills Equipment Value Index (EVI). Buyers and sellers can use the information in the Sandhills EVI to monitor equipment markets and maximize returns on acquisition, liquidation, and related business decisions. The Sandhills EVI data include equipment available in auction and retail markets, as well as model-year equipment actively in use. Effective with the January 2026 EVI release, Sandhills introduced several version enhancements and weighted adjustments. As part of this update, all historical EVI metrics were recalculated, and all future releases will include these improvements.

Market Report Details

This report includes detailed analyses of asking values and inventory trends in used aircraft markets, along with charts that help readers visualize the data. It describes and quantifies important trends in the buying and selling of used jets, piston-single aircraft, turboprop aircraft, and Robinson piston helicopters.

Global Used Jet Aircraft

• Inventory levels in the pre-owned jet aircraft market fell 6.78% month over month and 13.95% year over year in February and are trending down. The most significant decreases occurred in the large jet category, with inventory levels down 16.1% M/M and 21.1% YOY.
• Asking prices rose 1.25% M/M in February but slipped 1.68% YOY, continuing a downward trend that has persisted for the past 10 months. The used mid jet category posted the largest M/M asking value gain at 3.29%, while the used large jet category registered the largest YOY decline at 3.47%.

U.S. and Canada Used Piston-Single Aircraft

• Pre-owned piston single aircraft inventory levels rose 1.18% M/M in February but fell 19.08% YOY and are trending down.
• Asking values rose 1.73% M/M and 0.41% YOY and are trending sideways.

Global Used Turboprop Aircraft

• Inventory levels of used turboprop aircraft fell 3.08% M/M and 11.94% YOY in February and are trending down.
• Asking prices are trending down as well, with decreases of 1.46% M/M and 4.17% YOY in February.

Global Used Robinson Piston Helicopters

• Inventory levels in this market increased 11.46% M/M and 7% YOY in February and are trending up.
• This market experienced a 5.77% M/M drop in asking values and a slight 0.24% slip YOY.

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About the Sandhills Equipment Value Index

The Sandhills Equipment Value Index (EVI) is a principal gauge of the estimated market values of used assets—both currently and over time—across the construction, agricultural, commercial trucking, and aviation industries represented by Sandhills Global platforms, including Controller.com, AuctionTime.com, TractorHouse.com, MachineryTrader.com, TruckPaper.com, and other industry-specific equipment platforms. Powered by VIP+ and AircraftEvaluator, Sandhills’ proprietary asset valuation tools, Sandhills EVI provides useful insights into the ever-changing supply-and-demand conditions for each industry.