Ionic Insights: NBAA-BACE 2023: The Business Jet Fleet in Nevada (October 2023)

To coincide with NBAA-BACE taking place in Las Vegas from 17-19 October, this edition of Ionic Insights focuses on the business jet fleet in Nevada.

We analyse the size, composition and age of the installed fleet, whilst simultaneously investigating the most numerous OEMs, owners and base locations.

Background

The seventh largest state by land mass, Nevada has a population of a little over three million, half of whom reside in the Las Vegas metropolitan area.

Whilst the traditional foundations of Nevada’s economy - including mining and agriculture - remain important, they are now overshadowed by the manufacturing, government and tourism sectors. In fact, as of 2022 the largest industries by revenue were tourism ($317 billion) and casino-hotels ($29 billion).

Analysis

Nevada boasts a substantial installed business jet fleet of 227* aircraft (*Source: AMSTAT, September ‘23), nearly eighty percent of which are based in the wider Las Vegas area.

Midsize and Super-midsize aircraft dominate and together represent four out of every ten aircraft. It is not a surprise, therefore, that Cessna-Textron is the largest OEM by fleet size with almost one-quarter of the installed fleet; the CJ3 and CJ3+ are particularly popular.

Gulfstream boasts a similarly large fleet, with the G450 and G550 being the most numerous types.

Given the significance of tourism, it follows that a number of the casino-hotel groups are the largest owners of business aircraft. This includes Las Vegas Sands (with its fleet of nine Airbus, Boeing and Gulfstream aircraft) and MGM Mirage (with its six Embraer and Gulfstream jets). Despite this, corporate airliners (‘bizliners’) such as the Airbus Corporate Jet, Boeing Business Jet and Embraer Lineage product lines, still make up less than 6% of all aircraft.

Overall, the average age of the fleet is a little under 18 years; 97% percent of which is registered domestically (N).

See the following slide for further information:

Source: AMSTAT, September 2023.