Pre-Owned Entry Level Jet Market Review

Through the years, the business jets within the Entry Level category have been referred to by various names, with each OEM seeming to have their own preference. Terms like ‘Very Light Jet’ and ‘Personal Jet’ have been commonly used. Here, we’ll refer to the catch-all term of Entry Level Jet.

Aircraft in this category typically include seating for between five and seven passengers, plus a pilot. For the purpose of this article, they offer a Maximum Take-Off Weight (MTOW) of less than 12,000lbs (aircraft that subsequently emerged at the top end of the Entry Level Jet category have muddied the boundaries between Entry Level and what was traditionally considered Light Jet territory).

By benchmarking the current inventories for the popular Entry Level Jets along with the popular out-of-production models we can get a better understanding of how the marketplace is performing.

Entry Level Jet Inventory Levels & Asking Prices

Embraer Phenom 100/E/EV: According to AMSTAT, towards the end of H1 2024 the active fleet of Phenom 100s consisted of 409 aircraft. The fleet percentage available for sale or lease stood at 7.8%.

Prices on the pre-owned market at the time of writing ranged between $1.8m and $5.2m, depending on aircraft vintage, hours flown, maintenance/upgrade requirements, and previous types of operation (Part 91, Part 91k, Part 135 or medevac, for example).

Cessna Citation M2/M2 Gen2: Moreover, AMSTAT data showed there were 360 Citation M2 jets in operation as of this writing, with 6.9% of the fleet available for sale or lease. Pre-owned prices ranged from $4.0m to $6.5m.

Cessna essentially pioneered the Entry Level Jet market, being first to market with the Citation Mustang in 2006. The Mustang ceased production in 2017, but 466 units remain in operation as of this writing with 8.5% of the fleet available for sale or lease. Pre-owned prices for the Mustang ranged from $599K to $2.6m.

Cirrus Vision Jet: Proving a highly popular choice for operators stepping into jet ownership, there were 522 pre-owned single-engine Cirrus SF50 Vision Jets in operation worldwide at the time of writing, 6.7% of which were available for sale or lease. Prices ranged between $2.0m and $4.3m according to AMSTAT.

HondaJet/Elite/Elite S/Elite II: Meanwhile, 241 HondaJet aircraft were in operation worldwide, with 15.8% of the fleet available for sale or lease. Pre-owned HondaJet prices ranged between $3.0m and $5.4m.

Eclipse 500/550: Production of the Eclipse 500/550 seemed to dry up by 2016. However, in 2023, two new units were delivered with the promise of more to come in 2024. A total of 284 pre-owned aircraft remained in operation worldwide at the time of writing, 5.9% of which were available for sale or lease, with prices ranging between $1.0m and $2.0m.

Pre-Owned Entry-Level Jet Market Share, by OEM

Chart A shows market share for the five main Entry Level Jet OEMs between the years 2019 and 2023 (per AMSTAT).

It’s interesting to note that while Cessna continues to be the market leader, as of the end of 2023 it had lost close to 6% of the market share it held in 2019, while Cirrus has been the main beneficiary with a 12% market share gain (an increase from 181 aircraft in 2019 to >500+ in 2023).

Honda also saw an increase during the timeframe (+3.3% market share), while Embraer lost 5.0% and Eclipse 4.8% of their market share, respectively.

Chart B, meanwhile, depicts the percentage of pre- owned units for sale/lease for each OEM in the same timeframe, and reveals the HondaJet fleet for sale increased x1.7 to 38 units in 2023 when benchmarked against 2019.

Among the likely reasons could be Jet It – a fractional ownership program which used Honda Jet aircraft – which grounded its fleet citing safety concerns following a series of runway excursions. Jet It subsequently ceased operations in May 2023, potentially leading to a glut of higher timed pre-owned jets on the market.

Entry Level Jet OEM Shipments

According to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), new aircraft shipments within this segment averaged 152 units annually between 2019 and 2023. Indeed, analysis reveals a negative Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of -1.0% for jets produced in this category.

Looking at new airplane shipments, an analysis of Chart C reveals Cirrus has taken an increasing market share. In 2019, the OEM enjoyed a 50% share, which by the end of 2023 had risen to 62.3%. The OEM recorded a five-year average share of 56.2%.

Cessna and HondaJet, meanwhile, were locked in a close contest for second place, maintaining an average market share of 19.3% and 19.2% Entry Level Jet shipments, respectively. Embraer, meanwhile, claimed an average 5.4% market share of new aircraft shipments between 2019 and 2023.

Note: Cessna’s Citation Mustang has been out of production since 2017, so the data in Chart C is for the Citation M2 only. Similarly, the Eclipse 500/550 had been out of production until 2023 when two units were produced unexpectedly.

Key Technical Specifications

Following, we will focus on the top-of-the-line products of the leading Entry Level Jet OEMs.

Table A - Entry Level Jet Specifications

Chart D shows the Honda Jet Elite II to offer the largest cabin volume (cubic feet) and second highest range among its peers. Conversely, the Cessna Citation M2 Gen2 offers 3nm more range than the Honda Jet Elite II, but a 13% smaller cabin volume. 

Balanced Field Length vs. Range Comparison

Of course, part of the appeal of Entry Level Jets is their ability to operate into, and out of shorter runways. In a Balanced Field Length (BFL) versus Range comparison, Chart E shows the Cessna Citation M2 Gen2 offers the second lowest BFL and the highest range of the group.

This goes to show that in a category where the average stage length can be short, cabin size may not be the ultimate selling point if an aircraft can access shorter runways. At this end of the business jet market, prospective buyers need to weigh their mission requirements very carefully against all the capabilities a jet is offering.

In Summary

It is concerning that Cessna and Embraer have each lost crucial market share over the previous five-years, but in a market segment where buyers are likely to be far more price sensitive than in larger jet categories, it should come as no surprise that their loss has been Cirrus’ gain.

Though the overall Entry Level Jet segment recorded a negative Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of -1.0% between 2019 and 2023 in terms of new aircraft shipments, the picture is a little different if each OEM is viewed individually. Though Cessna shows negative CAGR of -8.3%, Cirrus experienced a positive CAGR of +3.5% while Embraer’s CAGR was flat for the period.

So, what’s next for the pre-owned Entry-Level Jet market? Cessna seemed to have hit a real sweet spot with its Citation Mustang model but discontinued production in 2017 after 11 years of production. The Citation Mustang is still proving highly popular among pre-owned buyers and was the top-selling pre-owned jet in May, recording 90 transactions over the preceding 12 months, per JETNET data.

While Cessna opted to focus on the higher end of the Entry Level segment, Cirrus has clearly stolen a march at the bottom end – but with over 500 units in operation, there is undoubtedly going to be wide range of airframe/engine times and maintenance conditions being made available on the pre-owned market.

Currently, Embraer’s Phenom 100 model retails at a slightly higher price point than the Citation Mustang on the pre-owned market, but it would be interesting to see what would happen with those values should the Brazilian OEM decide to cease production to focus on its top-selling (and more lucrative, from a profit margin perspective) Phenom 300.

Today, it seems that HondaJet is past any safety concerns it was experiencing previously. One of the key questions, however, is what impact the closure of Jet It (a fractional ownership program with a large fleet of HondaJet) may have had on future aircraft sales in this segment, and pre-owned HondaJet values in general.

As HondaJet is committed to developing the Honda 2600, which has a planned certification of 2028, it seems clear that Honda remains optimistic about its foray into the aviation market thus far and seems unlikely to have plans to withdraw anytime soon.

That will presumably bode well for pre-owned HondaJet Elite series aircraft, too!