NAFA member, Adam Meredith, President of AOPA Aviation Finance Company, discusses airframe hours and financing.
With the market the way it is right now, we’ve seen a huge uptick in the number of people looking to get financing on airplanes that have 9,000, 10,000, even 13,000 hours on their airframes. Normally buyers don’t even look at these airplanes, but because that’s what’s available, that’s what they’re settling on.
Unfortunately, financing could be a challenge. Once you get past 10,000 hours on a piston aircraft airframe, some lenders will start to get weak in the knees. We’ve known lenders who become hesitant with fewer hours than that. So, your financing options are going to become increasingly limited as you approach that 10,000-hour threshold.
This same hesitancy does not apply to turbine aircraft—turboprops or jets. Because of the rigorous tests those pressurized aircraft go through during their annual inspections, and the scheduled maintenance that goes into keeping them airworthy, lenders will be comfortable, potentially, doing deals on these types of airplanes with more than 10,000 airframe hours.
This article was originally published by AOPA Finance on September 1, 2021.
