The business jet market Q2 2026 numbers, released by Global Jet Capital in its latest Business Aviation Market Brief, tell a story of a market that looks healthy on the surface and gets more interesting the closer you look. Backlogs are up. Departures are up. But the real headline sits underneath those numbers: the aircraft actually available to buy right now skew older than they have in years, and the newer aircraft buyers actually want are getting harder to find.
Backlogs and Deliveries Are Both Climbing
Combined OEM order backlogs reached $66.8 billion in the second quarter, up 20.4% year over year. Book to bill ratios remain above 1 to 1 across the major manufacturers, meaning new orders are coming in faster than aircraft are being delivered against them. That is pushing lead times on new aircraft out to 18 to 26 months on average, with some models running longer.
Deliveries are still growing alongside that backlog. H1 2026 deliveries among the top five OEMs were up 4.5% year over year, so manufacturers are not falling behind, they are simply being asked for more than ever before.
Flight Activity Is Up, but Not Everywhere Equally
Departures were up 3.2% year over year in the second quarter and 3.4% for the first half of 2026, with Q2 activity up 8.5% from Q1. North America led that growth with a 4.9% year over year increase. The rest of the world moved the opposite direction, down 1% year over year, which Global Jet Capital attributes to reduced flying tied to Middle East geopolitical developments rather than a broader slowdown.
Pre-Owned Deals Are Fewer, but Worth More
Pre-owned transaction unit volume was down 7.5% year over year through the first half of the year, while pre-owned dollar volume was actually up 7% over the same period.
Fewer pre-owned aircraft are changing hands, but the ones that are trading are worth more on average.
The Real Story: Younger Aircraft Are Vanishing From the Market
Only 6.6% of the in-service business jet fleet is currently listed for sale, essentially flat from 6.7% in the first quarter and still well below the roughly 10% historical average. That number splits sharply by age:
- Aircraft 12 years old or newer: just 3.7% availability
- Aircraft 13 years and up: 8.2% availability
Older aircraft now make up 72.7% of all current listings, up from 58.4% back in 2019. Overall listings were up 3.3% year over year, but nearly all of that increase came from older aircraft. Listings of younger aircraft actually fell 1.6% over the same period.
That is the number worth sitting with. The market isn’t short on inventory across the board, it is short on the specific inventory most buyers are actually shopping for. If you have been looking for a newer, well-maintained aircraft and the search has felt harder than it should, the data backs that up. The pool has been shrinking for years, not just this quarter.
Values Are Holding, and Younger Aircraft Are Leading
Residual values were up 2.9% year over year for like aged aircraft in the second quarter, split between a 1.9% gain for older aircraft and a 3.3% gain for younger aircraft. That gap tracks directly with the availability numbers above. When something is scarce and still in demand, it holds its value better, and that’s exactly what’s happening with younger business jets right now.
What This Means If You Are Buying or Selling
For buyers, the tight availability on younger aircraft is the number to watch. With new aircraft lead times running 18 to 26 months, waiting for a new build is not a faster path to delivery than it might have been a year ago. The pre-owned market, tight as it is, remains the more realistic route for most buyers looking to close within the next year, and moving decisively when the right aircraft comes up matters more than it used to.
For sellers, a well-maintained aircraft 12 years old or newer is sitting in the smallest, most sought-after slice of available inventory. That is a real advantage in negotiating price and terms, and it’s worth understanding exactly where your aircraft sits in this data before you set a list price or field an offer.
This is a healthy market, supported by real backlog growth and real flight activity, not a speculative run-up. But healthy does not mean every segment looks the same, and knowing where a specific aircraft sits in this data is what turns a market report into an actual decision.
Ready to Talk Through What This Means for You?
Market data only helps if someone translates it into a real decision for your specific aircraft or acquisition. At Holstein Aviation, we track these trends quarter over quarter so you know exactly where your market stands before you buy or sell.
Contact us here to talk through what the current market means for your next move.
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