Market Intelligence · FLYING Finance
Quarterly analysis of aircraft financing rates, GAMA shipment data, FAA registry trends, and economic indicators — what is actually happening in the market and what it means for buyers right now.
Not a Blog Post. A Data Desk.
Most aviation market data is dealer-reported, appraisal-scoped, or jet-only. We built our own instead — sourced from primary data (FRED, the FAA registry, our own closed loans) and refreshed on a real schedule, not a press-release cycle.
Index 01
Live financing rates by category, indexed to the 5-year Treasury and refreshed automatically — not a rate card someone forgot to update.
Index 02
Real deal volume — transactions, states, and dollar volume from loans we've actually closed, not a survey panel.
Index 03
Sourced directly from FAA Bill-of-Sale filings. Every other tracker in this space covers jets — this is the only one built for piston.
Market Coverage
GAMA's Q2 2026 data shows the industry shipping more premium metal to a buyer increasingly insulated from rates, while the piston buyer gets squeezed.
Chair Warsh's Jackson Hole remarks confirm what the calendar already implied: the pause is over and the Fed is chasing inflation again.
Premiumization and a rising-rate environment are squeezing the piston buyer just as MOSAIC was supposed to make entry-level aircraft cheaper. Here's where the real affordability still exists.
381 piston aircraft of 667 total civil shipments. The data behind the breakout and what it means for used market values and financing.
How premiumization of luxury assets is reshaping the financing landscape and how to position for it.
Full-year look at 2025 financing conditions, rate environment, and the market forces that set up 2026.
GAMA Shipment Data
Source: GAMA · gama.aero · Updated quarterly (Feb/May/Aug/Nov)
Q2 2026 Manufacturer Deliveries
Piston Aircraft
| Manufacturer | Key Models | Q2 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Cirrus Aircraft | SR20, SR22, SR22T, SF50 | 209 |
| Textron Aviation | 172S, 182T, T206H, Baron | 177† |
| Piper Aircraft | Archer, Seminole, M350 | 64 |
| TECNAM | P2008JC, P-Mentor, P2010 | 48* |
| Diamond Aircraft | DA20, DA40, DA42, DA62 | 38 |
*Includes LSA/ASTM models. †Textron piston only. Source: GAMA Q2 2026.
Turbine Aircraft
| Manufacturer | Key Models | Q2 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Gulfstream | G280, G500/600/700/800 | 41 |
| Textron Aviation | King Air, Citations, Caravan | 177† |
| Bombardier | Challenger 350/3500/650, Global | 32 |
| Embraer | Phenom 300E, Praetor 500/600 | 45 |
| Pilatus | PC-12, PC-24 | 37 |
†Textron combined piston + turbine total across all categories. Source: GAMA Q2 2026.
FAA Registry
Source: FAA Civil Airmen Statistics · faa.gov · Updated annually (April/May)
Rate Environment
Source: FLYING Finance / Federal Reserve FRED · Aircraft rates live via WPCode
Market Conditions · Q2 2026
Certified Piston
Inventory tight. Q1–Q2 2026 piston surge (786 YTD units, GAMA) not yet reflected in used supply. Pre-owned Cirrus and late-model Skylane prices remain elevated.
Updated Q2 2026
Turboprop
Geopolitical uncertainty creating hesitation. TBM and PC-12 inventory has loosened slightly from 2024 highs. A window is open for prepared buyers.
Updated Q2 2026
LSA / MOSAIC
Legacy LSA pricing soft ahead of July 24 MOSAIC manufacturer certification date. Window narrows after July 24 as new certification sets a pricing floor.
Updated Q2 2026 · Review after July 24
Regulatory Calendar
October 2025
FAA expanded Sport Pilot privileges. Pilots may now fly heavier, faster LSA aircraft under the Sport Pilot certificate.
July 20, 2026
FLYING Finance was on site at FLYING Magazine Booth 2004, July 20–26. Attendees who financed an aircraft purchase during the show closed before leaving Wisconsin.
July 24, 2026
Manufacturer certification requirements become effective. Affects new LSA pricing and financing eligibility. Legacy LSA buyer window closes at this date.
December 31, 2026
Aircraft must be purchased and placed in service by December 31, 2026. October is the last comfortable entry point. 67 days remaining.
Common Questions
GAMA — the General Aviation Manufacturers Association — publishes quarterly data on worldwide civil aircraft shipments by category (piston, turboprop, business jet, rotorcraft) and manufacturer. It is the definitive public dataset for GA production volume, published each February, May, August, and November.
Rates update automatically via FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data) through a live WPCode integration. The 5-year Treasury rate — the base for all loan categories — updates daily when markets are open. The spread added to that base reflects FLYING Finance's current lending program and updates when market conditions change meaningfully.
The One Big Beautiful Budget Act reinstated 100% bonus depreciation for qualifying business aircraft. A qualifying aircraft must be used more than 50% for business purposes and placed in service by December 31, 2026. 100% bonus depreciation allows the full purchase price to be deducted in the year of purchase rather than depreciated over time. Consult your CPA for your specific situation.
Aircraft loans are priced as a spread over a benchmark Treasury rate. FLYING Finance uses the 5-year Treasury Constant Maturity Rate (DGS5) as the base for all loan categories, then adds a spread — currently ranging from 1.92% for certified piston to 3.00% for experimental — to arrive at the starting rate for qualified borrowers. When Treasury rates fall, aircraft loan rates follow.
Individual quarters are noisy — Q4 always runs high as manufacturers push year-end deliveries. Rolling 4-quarter totals smooth that seasonality and show the underlying trend in production. The current rolling period shows piston at 1,805 (slightly below the prior period's 1,834), turboprop contracting to 585 from 651, and business jets growing strongly to 875 from 740.
Source Data
Explore each data series: Aircraft Lending Index · Loan rates vs. Treasury · GA aircraft shipments · Piston Transaction Index · Active private pilots
Primary source for all shipment charts and manufacturer tables. Quarterly worldwide civil aircraft shipments by category.
Updated quarterly · gama.aero
Live source for all rates and macro indicators. 5-yr Treasury, Fed Funds, SOFR, Prime Rate, WTI Crude. Updates automatically via WPCode.
Updated daily to monthly · fred.stlouisfed.org
Annual count of active certificated pilots. 887,519 total active pilots in 2025, including 174,155 private pilots. Source for the pilot trend chart.
Updated annually (April/May) · faa.gov
OBBBA reinstated 100% bonus depreciation for qualifying business aircraft through December 31, 2026.
Updated per legislation · irs.gov
Tax policy coverage for business aviation including bonus depreciation advocacy and ownership structure guidance.
Updated continuously · nbaa.org
Closed & Funded
What Actually Drives This
Toggle any factor on or off, switch between indexed level and year-over-year percent change, and narrow the years shown. Piston, turboprop, and jet buyers are driven by genuinely different things — see which lines actually move together. This is correlation across 31 years of annual data, not proof of causation; read it directionally.
Source: GAMA (shipments) · EIA (gas price) · BLS (CPI, PPI) · FRED / Federal Reserve (S&P 500, 5yr Treasury, Fed funds, corporate profits, household net worth, housing starts) · FLYING Finance analysis, 1994–2025 annual panel.
AI Assistant
Amelia can explain what the GAMA numbers mean for your purchase timing, walk through the rate environment, or help you get started on a pre-approval.
Hi! I can help you interpret the shipment data, understand how current rates affect your deal, or get you started on pre-approval. What would you like to know?
Amelia provides general information only and does not constitute financial advice.
FLYING Finance Proprietary Data
No industry tracker publishes a piston-specific transaction count. So we built our own, sourced directly from the FAA's public aircraft registry (Bill-of-Sale filings), rather than relying on a third party. This index updates monthly as new filings are processed. It measures recorded ownership transfers — an upper-bound proxy for market activity, not a precise purchase count.
Turbine Companion Indices
Same method as the piston index, applied to FAA-registered turboprop and turbojet/turbofan aircraft (turboshaft helicopters excluded). Counts exclude correction filings and acquisitions by FAA-certificated dealers.
Methodology: counts unique piston fixed-wing aircraft with a non-correction FAA Bill-of-Sale (BOS) filing, excluding acquisitions by FAA-certificated aircraft dealers (inventory purchases, not end-buyer transactions). This still captures all other FAA-recorded ownership transfers — open-market sales, but also family transfers, estate settlements, and corporate restructurings — so treat it as an upper-bound activity indicator, not a precise count of arm's-length purchases. The FAA public document index only keeps roughly the last 30-40 days of filings, so each month is counted once, from the first FAA data release after the month ends, and then held fixed. Every month uses the same capture timing, so months are comparable to each other.
Source: FAA Releasable Aircraft Registration Database (registry.faa.gov) · Index compiled and maintained by FLYING Finance · Updated monthly
Live via FRED · WPCode
Live via FRED · Auto-updates
December 31, 2026
Aircraft must be purchased and placed in service by December 31, 2026. October is the last comfortable entry point for a December close.
Bonus Dep Guide Estimate My PaymentSoft pull · No score impact
Know your rate and purchasing range in 2 business days. The market moves — your pre-approval positions you to act when the right aircraft appears.
Start Pre-Approval Am I ready to finance? How much can I afford?Publication schedule
GAMA data, rate movements, and regulatory updates — published quarterly. Subscribe to receive each update when it drops.
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Business Aviation · Q3 2026 (preliminary)
The preowned market split in the third quarter. Heavy and super-midsize jets stayed tight, while medium jets, light jets and turboprops saw softer sales. AMSTAT's preliminary Q3 review notes that some Q3 data was still coming in at publication.
Heavy Jet
5.1% of the fleet listed vs. a 7.0% 10-year average, and inventory has plateaued after shrinking in the first half. Year-to-date transactions are up 7.3% over 2025, and median values are up 14% year to date.
Updated Q3 2026 (preliminary)
Super-Mid Jet
Inventory is up 11.4% year to date after a sharp drop in late 2025. Sales remain strong, up 11.7% year to date, but median values have leveled off, up just 2% year to date.
Updated Q3 2026 (preliminary)
Medium Jet
Inventory is up nearly 10% year to date while sales are running almost 6% behind 2025. Median values are still up 4% year to date.
Updated Q3 2026 (preliminary)
Light Jet
About 7% of the fleet listed vs. an 8.9% 10-year average, so supply is still below normal. But Q3 transactions fell 26% from Q3 2025, the year is expected to finish about 6.2% below 2025, and median values are down 4% year to date.
Updated Q3 2026 (preliminary)
Turboprop
About 5.0% of the fleet listed vs. a 5.8% 10-year average, with inventory unchanged year to date. Q3 transactions fell 47% from Q3 2025, the year is expected to finish about 9% below 2025, and median values are down 5% year to date.
Updated Q3 2026 (preliminary)
What it means for buyers
Turboprop and light jet buyers have more leverage heading into year end than at any point in 2026, as sales slow and values soften. Heavy and super-midsize buyers still face thin supply. In every segment, a pre-approval lets you move quickly, and aircraft placed in service by December 31 may qualify for 100% bonus depreciation when used for business.
FLYING Finance analysis
Source: AMSTAT preliminary Q3 2026 preowned business aircraft review (October 12, 2026) · Updated quarterly
Business Aviation · OEM Order Backlogs
Price-impact read: Three of four manufacturers show sustained multi-period backlog growth — Bombardier +51% since YE2024, Gulfstream +22%, Embraer +5% — which, layered on today's tight preowned inventory across every jet segment, is the textbook seller's-market signal: longer new-aircraft wait times push some buyers toward preowned. Textron is the exception (dipped in 2025, recovered this quarter), and Medium Jet is the one place the logic breaks down — tight backlog and tight preowned inventory, but preowned asking prices down roughly 25% year-over-year. Both called out here rather than smoothed over.
Unit estimates are FLYING Finance's calculation (disclosed $ backlog ÷ an estimated blended list price by current model mix) — manufacturers do not disclose backlog in units. Source: company SEC filings and investor releases.
Note: effective January 2026, Textron eliminated its eAviation segment (electric and hybrid-electric aircraft, including Pipistrel), folding most of it into Textron Aviation. Year-end 2024 and year-end 2025 Textron Aviation figures shown were reported before that realignment, so the current-quarter figure is not on a strictly identical segment basis — eAviation ran roughly $30 million per year in revenue, so the effect on comparability is minor.
Business Aviation · Transaction Trend
| Segment | FY2023 (base) | FY2024 | FY2025 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy Jet | 539 | ▲ 625 +16.0% | ▲ 699 +11.8% |
| Super-Mid Jet | 287 | ▲ 313 +9.0% | ▲ 344 +9.9% |
| Medium Jet | 728 | ▼ 670 -8.0% | ▲ 747 +11.5% |
| Light Jet | 1,053 | ▼ 990 -6.0% | ▲ 1,064 +7.5% |
| Turboprop | 1,302 | ▼ 1,289 -1.0% | ▲ 1,326 +2.9% |
FY2023 figures are the last published unit counts; later years are FLYING Finance's calculation applied to industry-reported percentage changes.1
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