Global Jet Capital expects 19,691 business jet transactions between 2026 and 2030, worth $247 billion. Of those, 14,566 are forecast to happen in North America. That is 73.9% of every deal the industry will do over the next five years, and it is the first number a buyer outside the United States should read.
The figures come from the company's sixth annual Business Jet Market Forecast, reported on 14 September 2026. Global Jet Capital is an aircraft finance and leasing business, so its count is of transactions logged rather than aircraft shipped by manufacturers, and it covers new and preowned sales together.
The headline is growth. Transaction dollar volume rises from $45.6 billion in 2026 to $48.3 billion in 2027, $49.7 billion in 2028, $51.1 billion in 2029 and $52.8 billion in 2030, an average of 4.1% a year. Unit volume climbs more slowly, from 3,725 transactions in 2026 to 4,122 in 2030, an average of 2.8% a year. The market grows in money at roughly half again the rate it grows in aircraft.
For 2026 specifically, Global Jet Capital forecasts transactions up 3.6% and dollar volume up 5.5%. Split by type, new deliveries rise 3.3% and preowned unit volume rises 3.6%, with preowned dollar volume up 3.5%.
Most of the market is second hand
The composition matters more than the totals. Of the 3,725 transactions forecast for 2026, 853 are new aircraft and 2,872 are preowned. Preowned deals are 77% of everything that changes hands.
By value the picture inverts. The 853 new aircraft carry $24.2 billion of the $45.6 billion total, and the 2,872 preowned aircraft carry $21.4 billion. Preowned is more than three quarters of the transactions and slightly under half the money. Divided out, that is an average of roughly $28 million per new aircraft against roughly $7.5 million per preowned one.
The new aircraft themselves skew large. Of the 853 forecast for 2026, Global Jet Capital splits them 280 heavy, 225 medium, 186 light and 162 very light. Heavy jets are under a third of the units and, because they are the most expensive category, a much larger share of the value.
Global Jet Capital Business Jet Market Forecast, 2026 to 2030
19,691 transactions, $247 billion, three quarters of it in one region
Transaction dollar volume by year
Unit volume over the same years: 3,725, 3,852, 3,957, 4,035 and 4,122. Dollars grow 4.1% a year, units 2.8%.
The 2026 market, 3,725 transactions
| Segment | Units | Value | Avg per aircraft |
|---|---|---|---|
| New | 853 | $24.2bn | About $28m |
| Preowned | 2,872 | $21.4bn | About $7.5m |
| Total | 3,725 | $45.6bn |
New aircraft in 2026 split 280 heavy, 225 medium, 186 light and 162 very light.
Five year transactions by region
| Region | New | Preowned | Total | Share |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| North America | 3,241 | 11,325 | 14,566 | 73.9% |
| Rest of world | Combined | 5,125 | 26.1% | |
| Total | 19,691 | 100% | ||
Source: Global Jet Capital, sixth Business Jet Market Forecast, published September 2026. Averages per aircraft are derived from the stated unit and value figures.
Used aircraft prices are firming
The more useful signal for anyone shopping the resale market sits in the preowned growth rates. Across the five years, Global Jet Capital expects preowned unit volume to grow 2.9% a year and preowned dollar volume to grow 4.2% a year. More money is chasing a slower-growing number of aircraft, which is a forecast of firmer prices rather than a forecast of more inventory.
That is consistent with what the resale market has already been doing. AVNET reported in August that preowned sales were climbing while listed inventory fell to its lowest level since early 2024, and separately that residual values on seven year old aircraft have held far better than the depreciation curves brokers used for a decade. Global Jet Capital's five year view says the pressure does not let up.
Where the market is not
The regional split is the part of this forecast that reads differently from Dubai than it does from Dallas. North America's 14,566 transactions over five years break down into 3,241 new aircraft and 11,325 preowned. Every other region on earth combined accounts for the remaining 5,125 transactions, roughly 1,025 a year across Europe, Latin America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa together.
For a buyer in the Gulf, that is a plain description of the pool. The aircraft are overwhelmingly listed, based, inspected and financed in North America, and the competition for any given airframe is largely American. A preowned Global or Gulfstream that comes to market is not being shopped in a regional market that happens to include the United States. It is being shopped in an American market that happens to be open to everyone else.
The practical consequences are the ones the region already knows: transaction timelines that include a transatlantic or transpacific ferry, pre-purchase inspections carried out at facilities a long way from the buyer, and a registry and import decision that has to be made before the aircraft moves rather than after. The pre-purchase inspection is where most of that risk is priced, and it is worth more attention when the aircraft is being bought sight unseen from another continent.
Global Jet Capital does name the Gulf. The company identifies Asia Pacific and the Middle East and Africa as the regions where the growth opportunity sits, pointing specifically to South and Southeast Asia and the Persian Gulf, and attributing the opportunity to sustained wealth creation across the last 25 years. That is a statement about direction, not about current share. The forecast still puts nearly three quarters of the next five years of activity in one region.
The demand underneath
Flight activity supports the forecast rather than contradicting it. Business jet flying rose 3.4% year on year in the first half of 2026, which is close to the 2.8% annual transaction growth Global Jet Capital projects. Aircraft are being used more, and the fleet is turning over at a similar pace.
Andrew Farrant, chief marketing officer at Global Jet Capital, summarised the 2026 position as increased demand, with transactions expected to rise 3.6% and dollar volume 5.5%.
Two cautions apply to all of it. A five year forecast is a model, not a booking, and the last five years have produced several events no model carried. And Global Jet Capital counts logged transactions, which is a different measurement from manufacturer shipments, so these figures should not be read against delivery data as though the two were the same series.
What the forecast does establish is structural rather than predictive. The business jet market is mostly a second hand market, it is mostly an American one, and the money in it is growing faster than the metal. For buyers using the UAE's private aviation airports as their base, that is the shape of the market on the other end of every deal.