Rani Awad

CHARLIE BRAVO| RENE BANGLESDORF
good sign that they are getting serious about
buying an aircraft,” Banglesdorf notes.
Frequently, an owner will have their chief
pilot do research in the run-up to any upgrade,
or they will do research themselves. Following
up on these hits can also generate strong
leads. “Of course, if we get direct requests for
information, then we follow those up and try
to fi nd out a good deal more about what it is
that they have in mind,” she comments.
Charlie Bravo is happy to sell new aircraft
if the opportunity arises, but Banglesdorf says
that this probably constitutes no more than
5% of the company’s business.
So how is the market today? “Four or fi ve
years ago we were seeing some distressed sales,
with owners under severe fi nancial pressure
from the global economic downturn. However,
today what we tend to see is people getting fair
value from the market for their aircraft. There
are very few distressed sales,” Banglesdorf says.
“Clearly newer aircraft sell faster than older
models. Any aircraft with a good pedigree and a
reasonable price is going to sell, however. We recently
brought a 15-year-old aircraft with low time
and only two owners to the market. It went fairly
quickly. However, prices are either still falling – or
at best, not coming back up. On the plus side,
inventory across the pre-owned fl eet is thinning
out and there is a good chance that this will help
prices to stabilise or even rise a bit,” she notes.
Banglesdorf points out that the competitive
landscape in pre-owned pricing has changed a
good deal since the crash. “In 2005, if you were
spending two to three million dollars US you’d
be looking at a Citation V. Today you would be
looking at a Hawker 800XP or a G100, or on
the higher end of that at a G4,” she comments.
The basic point is that you can get a lot more
aircraft for your money – so this then pushes the
emphasis towards operating costs and maintenance
costs as the real focus for buyers.
“There are some interesting trade-offs to
consider. Where you could buy a 2005 Hawker
800XP for $3.5 or $4 million, you can also
think about a really nice Challenger 601 for
$2 million. The difference in price will more
than make up for the increased operating costs
of running the Challenger,” she notes.
“Some of the manufacturers are doing an
amazing job with their newer models that are
now on the pre-owned market. The Embraer
Phenom 300 has done very well. The Legacy
500 is very well thought of in the market. And
on the new models now appearing I am very
interested to see how the HondaJet sells. They
have better performance numbers than they
were expecting, so it will be very competitive
with the current crop of light jets,” she comments.
As always in recent years, there is continued
interest in mid-size aircraft that can fl y coast to
coast across the US and that have a wider body.
But Banglesdorf says that Charlie Bravo is also
seeing a pick-up in demand for pre-owned light
jets, particularly in North America.
So what does the future hold for Charlie Bravo?
“I would love to see the business grow to 40
to 50 transactions per year, but my vision is different
than many of my competitors. As a female
business owner, I have noticed that only 4% of
business aircraft are owned by women. I’d like to
see that number increase as more business women
take advantage of such a great competitive tool.
I am presently working on a large PR project that
I hope will raise awareness about the benefits of
private aviation—and it may involve a book published
sometime in 2016,” she concludes.
50 International | Autumn 2015