Hong Kong business aviation consulting firm Asian Sky Group (ASG) has released its 2020 Q3 edition of Asian Sky Quarterly, complete with an updated forecast on the business jet and civil helicopter markets throughout the Asia Pacific region. This issue focuses on the impact of COVID-19 on the regional business aviation market.

“We've seen a recovery in [business jet] aircraft utilisation, from the depths of despair in April till today where we are still down but just a seemingly modest nine per cent,” says CEO Jeffrey Lowe. “Call it a 'V' shaped recovery or a flattening of the curve, we'll take it as the industry needs aircraft in the air. The recovery has mostly been driven by increased international travel too and leads by a recovery in Chinese travellers and airports. What this all means for business jet sales is probably best to describe as “mixed”. There's a slight optimistic uptick in purchase intentions of pre-owned aircraft (three per cent) but more aircraft are on the market for sale (4.1 per cent), taking longer to sell, resulting in prices and ultimately values continuing to drop. From March through June and July values fell between 15 per cent and 20 per cent in the heavy, super-mid and medium jet categories, although there was a slight recovery in August.”