Aircraft trading group Jetcraft Corporation is opening a new office in the Gold Coast region of Australia. The U.S.-based group is partnering with five-time Grand Prix motorcycle racing champion Mick Doohan, who now runs FBO and air charter businesses Platinum Flight Services and Global Jet at Gold Coast Airport. Doohan, who is a helicopter pilot, will be Jetcraft’s authorized sales representative for Australasia.
According to Jetcraft (Chalet P2), which also has offices and sales representation at 16 other locations worldwide, Australia and New Zealand are expected to generate around 225 new business aircraft sales worth $5.5 billion over the next decade.
“Our [expansion] strategy has always been to find the right partner first and then identify the right opportunity so that we can operate globally but have a local relationship with clients at the same time,” Jetcraft co-owner Jahid Fazal-Karim told AIN. He said that Doohan, who previously acquired a pre-owned Bombardier Challenger 604 aircraft through Jetcraft, is “a big personality who has access to a lot of high-net worth individuals.”
According to Jetcraft, Australasia has proved to be a very good market for long-range aircraft and the company has sold several Bombardier Global models in the region. “But on the preowned side of the market there has also been demand at the lower end with buyers [with budgets] between $2 million and $15 million,” added Fazal-Karim. “We have missed out on some transactions in the past because we didn’t have a presence there.” He would like the new sales office to achieve 10 transactions each year.
Middle East Stable
Fazal-Karim said that the Middle East market continues to be relatively stable, although he did acknowledge the impact of political turmoil in some countries. Saudi Arabia has consistently remained the largest national market in the region but Jetcraft has been pursuing opportunities elsewhere since solidifying is position by acquiring the aircraft sales division of ExecuJet Aviation on 2013.
“On the buyer side the situation is still quite stable, but the question now will be what impact the drop in oil prices may have,” said Fazal-Karim. “We are certainly starting to see nervousness in some oil-producing countries and we have a lot of clients with interests in that industry.”
Globally, Jetcraft sees the strongest demand from preowned aircraft coming from North America these days. “We have seen a slow down in Asia, mainly due to the political situation there, such as the recent election in Indonesia and the clampdown on luxury products in China,” commented Fazal-Karim. “But we have seen a true recovery in North America and we see more diversification there because it is a more mature market where they see the value in different sizes and types of preowned aircraft. For the industry as a whole it’s good to start seeing better levels of demand and pricing. Now everyone is waiting for the European market to recover.
