The 21-Day Aircraft Market
February 2026 | Aviation Finance The aircraft market changed. Your financing approach didn’t. That’s why you’re competing for what’s left instead of what’s best. A Market That Doesn’t Wait The preowned business aircraft market has undergone a structural transformation that many buyers haven’t fully internalized. Inventory levels have compressed to approximately 6.5% of the […]
The Residual Value Bet
February 2026 | Aviation Finance Your lender assumes your aircraft will be worth 40% of purchase price at lease end. The actual secondary market says 55-60%. Guess who pockets the difference? The Hidden Tax on Expertise Gaps Every aircraft financing transaction involves a fundamental question: what will this asset be worth at the end […]
Your Bank Is Costing You Multiple Points at Exit
The Hidden Math of Financing Delays—and Why the “Cheapest” Capital Is Often the Most Expensive Here’s a question almost no operating partner asks when comparing equipment financing options: What does waiting cost? The conversation always centers on rate. Basis points. Fees. Total cost of capital calculated to the second decimal. These metrics are easy to […]
Sale-Leaseback Isn’t a Distress Signal—Your Reluctance to Use It Is
The stigma around monetizing owned equipment is costing operators access to capital their competitors are already using. Say “sale-leaseback” in a room full of oil and gas executives and watch the body language shift. For a generation of operators who came up during the boom-bust cycles of the 2000s and 2010s, the term carries […]
Stop Financing Equipment Like It’s a Drilling Program
The structures that worked for rig deployments are leaving money on the table for production optimization investments. There’s a reason the oil and gas industry developed reserve-based lending. Drilling programs are capital-intensive, production-dependent, and collateralized by proved reserves that engineers can evaluate with reasonable precision. The RBL structure—borrowing capacity tied to reserve value, repayment from […]
Stop Buying Equipment Like It’s 2015
There’s a playbook most manufacturers inherited. You know it even if you’ve never seen it written down. Buy mid-tier equipment—capable but not extravagant. Stretch its lifecycle as long as maintenance can hold it together. Finance through your bank because that’s where the relationship is. Treat each purchase as a standalone decision, evaluating ROI on a […]
The 73-Day Tax – The Cost of Slow Bank Decisions
Let’s talk about the conversation that happens in every CFO’s office but rarely makes it into board discussions: the real cost of slow financing. The average time to close equipment financing through a traditional commercial bank has stretched to 73 days. That’s not a typo. Seventy-three days from application to funding—up from 54 days just […]