Commercial Aerospace & Aviation
Following several years of buoyant demand, the market for new aircraft across all sectors of aviation, from large commercial transports to business jets, has entered a period of significant turmoil. A global economic recession and an unprecedented spike in fuel costs throughout much of 2008 eroded airline profitability, short-circuiting an up-cycle that was widely expected to extend at least through the end of the current decade. The meltdown of the credit markets and the financial sector writ large also wreaked havoc on corporate profits—a key driver of business aviation demand—and arguably hastened the demise of several key players on both the operational and manufacturing side of the nascent very light jet (VLJ) market. Even demand for high end business jets, typically the most resilient and least economically sensitive segment of the market, has eroded substantially over the last 12 months.
Clearly, present market dynamics point to significant challenges for aircraft manufacturers, suppliers, and operators across the entire value chain. For manufacturers, successful program capture and execution have never been more critical. Competition is increasingly intense and pressure from primes to rationalize their supplier base threatens suppliers that fail to perform with being consolidated out of a platform position. At the same time, aircraft operators are facing an increasingly difficult financing environment, which may exert continued downward pressure on new aircraft demand over the next several years, despite an acute need among many large carriers to modernize their fleet with more efficient aircraft.
Primes and suppliers alike continue to struggle with technical, financial, and operational challenges associated with new aircraft and engine program development. However, with the proliferation of risk-sharing partnerships and growing sub-prime integration responsibilities, suppliers have more financial and technical risk, but also enjoy greater opportunities to capture OEM and aftermarket revenue streams associated with new platforms.
Avascent's Experience Serving the Commercial Aerospace & Aviation Sectors
Avascent is uniquely positioned to offer sound strategy, marketing, business development, and investment advice to a range of clients confronting the challenges of the dynamic commercial aerospace sector. Our industry expertise, along with a deep commitment to our clients’success, enables us to provide pragmatic and timely solutions to the most pressing strategic business challenges.
Avascent’s team has extensive experience serving clients with manufacturing and operations concerns. Through independent, rigorous market validation, competitive assessments, opportunity identification and prioritization, and market and competitive risk assessments, our seasoned consultants support manufacturers, operators, and investors alike.
From providing due diligence support to strategic and financial buyers in the sector to helping primarily commercial firms craft strategies to diversify into adjacent defense markets, Avascent’s consultants provide business leaders with needs- and fact-based analyses coupled with pragmatic advice. In a sector driven by complex global trends and business economics, Avascent’s sophisticated analyses integrate perspectives across a multitude of domains.