Exhibiting for the first time in the NBAA-BACE convention hall, the International Aircraft Dealers Association (IADA) is marking its 30th year as an organization that was originally founded as the National Aircraft Resale Association (NARA). At the time of NARA’s founding in 1991, there were some people getting into the aircraft sales business solely for the monetary gain and lacking any ethics, said John Foster, a NARA founding member and co-founder of aircraft broker Ogarajets. “They were giving us a bad reputation and everyone wanted to be done with them,” he added.
NARA would establish the foundation of what would become IADA, such as inviting only companies that had a track record in aircraft sales and “proven themselves to be good at what they did,” said Foster. “They had the right business ethics and they were the kind of people we wanted to do business with.”
Following the rebranding to IADA (Booth 3564) in late 2018, the organization has made strides in trying to improve the aircraft sales industry by developing the first accreditation program for aircraft dealers administered by consultancy Joseph Allan LLC. That was followed by a certified broker program for individual sales associates of a certified dealer.
IADA-accredited dealers, currently totaling 47, are subject to reaccreditation every three years. The reaccreditation requires them to file annual reports to demonstrate they continue to meet accreditation standards, as well as to complete annual ethics and compliance training and carry a minimum of $1 million in liability insurance, for example.
As a follow-on to the dealer accreditation, IADA also created a broker certification program for an accredited dealer’s individual sales associates. Under that program, individual brokers sit for and pass an initial 100-question exam developed by Joseph Allan. Like the accredited dealers they work for, certified brokers also must adhere to the organization’s 14-point code of ethics and are required to complete five continuing education credits a year.
Additionally, IADA has established an internal inquiry process for grievances with its brokers or dealers that is managed by the group’s board of directors, who follow a pre-defined process to address such complaints.
In addition to dealers, IADA also created a verified member program for business aircraft OEMs and companies that provide services to business aviation and aircraft sales, such as escrow, legal, financial, maintenance and refurbishment. That group comprises seven airframers and 67 service and equipment providers. In all, IADA’s membership totals 121 dealers, aircraft OEMs, and business aviation service and equipment providers.
Taking the organization’s work a step further, IADA also created the AircraftExchange website, which allows accredited dealers and certified brokers to post their listings of aircraft that are for sale. IADA executive director Wayne Starling said the website “brings more transparency to aircraft transactions.”
One key thing the AircraftExchange site prevents is “phantom listings,” he said, which are listings of aircraft that really aren’t for sale. Instead, they are listings created to generate sales leads. That was “one of the complaints we constantly heard” about aircraft sales websites, Starling said, adding that every airplane listed on the AircraftExchange site is independently verified for sale, including by its serial number.
Since the launch of AircraftExchange in February 2019, the website has grown to more than 25,000 users who come to it on a monthly basis. The time users spend on the website continues to increase as does the number of pages they visit, according to IADA director of operations Erika Ingle. “It has become a really valuable tool for us to publicize our dealers, their aircraft, and then the full network of our membership,” she added.
During IADA’s most recent growth spurt, it has also created the IADA Foundation, a nonprofit arm of the organization that, among other charitable causes, provides scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students pursuing a career in business aviation. And in keeping with its requirements for broker recertification, it has created IADA U, an online continuing education program.
“We’ve done all of this within the past three and one-half years, so we’ve been kind of busy and it’s really going very well,” Starling said. “We’re really pleased with it.”
