Preowned Jet Sellers Gain Leverage While Signature Aviation Simplifies FBO Fees

Two different cost stories, moving in opposite directions

This week's reporting does not reduce to a single trend, but two items answer the same question from opposite sides: what does it actually cost to own, buy or operate in business aviation right now. The International Aircraft Dealers Association's third-quarter report shows preowned jet sellers gaining leverage and dealers expecting prices to rise. Signature Aviation, meanwhile, announced a restructuring of its FBO fees aimed at capping and clarifying the charges pilots have complained about for close to a decade. Read together, they show that cost pressure in business aviation is not moving as one market — it depends which side of the transaction a reader sits on.

The clearest evidence of tightening buyer conditions comes from IADA's own numbers. The clearest evidence of a buyer-side win comes from Signature's fee overhaul, which replaces a tangle of per-service charges with a single, size-and-time-based price pilots can check before they land.

Sellers are gaining ground in the preowned market

AVweb reports that IADA's third-quarter market report, released Monday, found accredited dealers completed 409 preowned aircraft transactions in the quarter, up from 367 in the same period of 2025. Sales for the first nine months of 2026 totalled 1,155 aircraft, against 983 over the same period last year. IADA members rated current market conditions at 3.62 on a five-point scale, up from 3.45 in the second quarter and from 3.47 a year earlier.

More significant for anyone buying is the buyer-seller index, which fell to 2.65 from 3.16 a year ago — a move AVweb describes as indicating the strongest seller advantage in nearly three years. IADA Executive Director Lou Seno is quoted saying "Overall, the market is strong and maturing, with buyers more selective and pricing increasingly tied to aircraft condition." About 60% of survey respondents expect large-cabin aircraft prices to rise over the next six months, while roughly 30% of dealers said they expect to become more willing to buy aircraft for inventory. The report attributes tightening inventory partly to owners awaiting new deliveries holding onto existing aircraft longer, a pattern AVweb says is especially pronounced among late-model midsize and large-cabin jets. IADA members do expect prices across turboprops, light jets, midsize jets and large jets to hold stable or rise modestly over the next six months, though some anticipate a slowdown in 2027.

For an owner weighing a sale or an upgrade, that is a straightforward signal: this is reported as a seller's market, and dealers expect it to stay that way into early 2027 even as some flag a later slowdown.

Signature's fee reform cuts the other way

AeroTime reports that Signature Aviation is introducing a program called Signature Access, which combines various FBO charges into a single price based on aircraft size, time spent on the ramp and location, with an online calculator so pilots and operators can check fees before arrival. The program is live at selected locations with a phased rollout planned over coming months. Qualifying fuel purchases at participating US locations will waive the first hour's access charge, though hangar space, ground power and lavatory service remain separately priced, according to Signature.

Beginning in 2027, Signature also plans to restrict special-event surcharges to a small number of events it describes as creating unusually high demand, disclosing affected locations and prices at least 30 days in advance. AeroTime lists the planned events as the 2027 Super Bowl in Los Angeles, the College Football Playoff National Championship in Las Vegas, Art Basel in Miami Beach, the US Open tennis tournament, the United Nations General Assembly in New York, and certain Formula 1 race weekends.

The change follows years of pressure. AOPA and seven pilots filed FAA complaints in August 2017 over pricing at Waukegan National Airport in Illinois, Asheville Regional Airport in North Carolina and Key West International Airport in Florida, all Signature Flight Support locations at the time. AOPA cited a pilot who received a $236 bill after parking a light aircraft at Waukegan for two hours, a charge Signature reduced to $90 after he protested, according to the association. Signature began publishing handling and infrastructure fees for piston aircraft at most of its US locations in 2018, though turbine operators still had to call individual locations for some charges. AOPA Acting Co-President Katie Pribyl is reported to have welcomed the latest move while maintaining the association's call for affordable airport access.

A loyalty bonus is not a price cut

A third item touches cost without actually moving it. Private Jet Card Comparisons reports that American Airlines AAdvantage members booking a first eligible charter with TLC Jet by 31 December 2026 can earn 100,000 AAdvantage miles and loyalty points, a bonus that replaces the normal one-mile-per-dollar earning rather than adding to it. TLC Jet Founder and President Justin Firestone is quoted saying the promotion "gives travelers an additional incentive to experience TLC Jet for their first private charter experience." American added TLC Jet as a loyalty partner in April. The offer is a marketing incentive aimed at new customers, not a change to the charter rate itself, and it sits apart from the genuine cost shifts reported in the preowned and FBO markets this week.

Where this could be wrong

The preowned and FBO stories concern different buyers — an owner selling or acquiring an aircraft, versus an operator or pilot paying ramp fees on a transient visit — so neither offsets the other for any single reader. IADA's figures come from its own members and reflect accredited dealers' transactions and sentiment rather than the full secondary market, and the association itself flags that some members expect a 2027 slowdown. Signature's fee changes are, by its own account, only live at selected locations for now, and the reporting does not say which airports have adopted Signature Access first or when the phased rollout completes nationally. It is also unclear from available reporting what Signature Access costs relative to the old per-service fee structure at any given location — the change is described as simplification, not as a reduction.

What to watch

Whether IADA's buyer-seller index keeps falling through the fourth quarter, or whether the anticipated 2027 slowdown some dealers flagged begins to show in transaction volumes, will tell readers whether this quarter's seller advantage holds. On the FBO side, the questions are which airports get Signature Access next, what it actually charges there compared with the old fee schedule, and whether AOPA considers the 2027 event-fee restrictions sufficient once the first disclosed prices appear 30 days ahead of an event.