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The market for hand-me-down corporate jets remained hot in 2012.
The fancy play toys of US billionaires and celebrities hit a record high last year, brokers said, thanks to a voracious appetite of new Third World tycoons seeing status.
The bigger a seller’s name, brokers say, the easier to close a deal.
Lance Armstrong, for example, pocketed a whopping 30 percent over his asking price for his Gulfstream IV, which he quietly sold for $8 million in December — ahead of his tell-all confession to Oprah Winfrey.
His refurbished 1996 jet — on the block for nearly a year — was likely sold to one of the handful of newly minted oil moguls in Nigeria, said one broker, who ranked the country as the world’s fastest-growing market for pre-owned luxury jets.
“Nigeria had only five private jets back in 2009, but today it’s got 173 — and growing,” said Dan Jennings, CEO of ThePrivateJetCompany.com, a global jet broker.
“Wealth is new there, and the jet brings a lot of status,” he said.
By contrast, China’s huge economy boasts just 250 private jets, said Jennings.
The US fleet of private jets in 2012 was tops at 11,368, said Jetnet, a research firm that tracks private aviation.
The Utica, N.Y., company said 2012 was a record year for the sale of pre-owned jets, up nearly 8 percent from 2011, to 2,220.
“The improvement in the world economy will push these sales further,” said Jetnet analyst Michael Chase.
Foreign buyers make up about 73 percent of the private-jet market.
Other bold-faced names unloading their used jets last year, brokers said, include: John Travolta, who sold his 1970s-era Gulfstream II for approximately $1 million last year; Bill Gates, who got $22 million for his Global Express; Jay-Z, who sold his Learjet for $2 million; and,Jack Nicklaus, whose Citation Excel fetched $3 million.