The private-jet market is showing signs of recovery, following a 30% decline in terms of delivery value between 2008 and 2013.

At a recent press conference, Captain Stephen Taylor — head of Boeing’s business-jet unit — attributed the improvement to growing global business confidence and the impact of the “ever-growing number of the ultra-rich on the luxury-goods sector”. He added: “We are now seeing a decent recovery.”

According to Teal Group (the US aerospace consultancy), the market is expected to increase by 3% this year to $23 billion, and then by 10% in 2015.

The smaller end of the market, where jets cost between $4 million and $26 million, saw a 56% decline in delivery values from 2008 to 2012 and still shows little sign of recovery. It is the bigger jets, costing from $26 million to $400 million, that are leading the recovery, “due to the return
to profitability of the world’s largest corporations, especially in the USA”.

Scott Neal, who is in charge of sales and marketing at Gulfstream (the jet manufacturer owned by General Dynamics), said: “The large-cabin long-range aircraft market has recovered much more quickly than the mid-size and the light-jet markets.”

Fabio Gamba, head of the European Business Aviation Association, said: “Countries with a new class of rich people — Russia, for example — want the biggest, fastest and strongest planes. A decade ago, this market did not exist in the same way.”