What is the depriciation value of planes like. If i bought one for say £20k and sold it four years later?

Question

Do planes retain their value? Obviously im talking about light aircraft like cessna's etc

Answer 1

There are a lot of variables here, but a new plane will depreciate more rapidly than an older one.  Just like a new car would.  After  awhile the car stops depreciating and maintains it value and if it's a good one may start appreciating again.

When you look at the price of a used aircraft, you need to take into account what kind of maintenance it will need and when it will need it.  (i.e. will I need to spend 20K to rebuild the engine in the next 500 hours and another 20K to update the avionics).

Answer 2

Gary has it correct.  You can buy a 20 year old aircraft for a song, spend a bundle on it over the 4 years and sell it for more than you paid for it, but you will not make a profit, you will always make a loss.

Older aircraft prices rely on condition and the time left  before major overhaul of any major life timed parts, more than the age of the aircraft.

Anything which is run "on condition" is going to cost you a bundle.

Answer 3

very little depreciation because regular maintenance means always replacing parts

Answer 4

Acutally aircraft follow a cyclical trend of depreciating heavily when new for about 20 year. After this they hold value. Some times they will appreciate.

This does matter on the aircraft having no damage, AD's complied with, and low flight time.

Answer 5

Well myself was thinking of buying into a share of an aircraft as soon as i fiinish my ppl, alot of people do this. I can honestly tell you that aircraft really do hold their value, and especially planes like cessna 152, 172,pipers etc, they are aircraft that will always be in demand by many pilots, flying clubs and schools alike, and its very rarely that you see aircraft drop in price radically or steeply, maybe you will see a slow decrease in price but they will pretty much retain their value, but it depends on what year the aircraft was built for example cessnas built in the mid 70's, early 80's will go from anything as little as £18-20,000 and to be honest in 4 years time these same aircraft will still retain alot of its value, in most cases aircraft will still have the same value, anyway airplanes are airplanes and alot of pilots want to own one, if the older planes dropped in value so much over a short space of time (i.e. 4 years) then every pilot could possibly own one, the lucky ones get the chance to buy one, many however dont!

Your can be pretty certain that aircraft will retain alot of its value after 4 years, and to buy one now is an excellent time to buy one!

(only airlines like boeing and airbus can lose massive chunks of money (millions sometimes) as of when they are taken out of circulation from a fleet, due to the high running cost and maintenance, you wont beleive how much airliners can be bought for!

Good luck!