CJI Asia: ‘It is not a boom but not a bust either’

Freestream Aircraft has witnessed a huge demand from Brazil and North America in the past few months, said Alireza Ittihadieh, President and CEO of the broker/dealer.

“90% of our enquiries are coming from that part of the world,” he said.

Ittihadieh attributed the surge in demand to two factors: first, the tax benefits buyers stand to have even if President Trump does not get re-elected and second, “because people have realised that the world has not come to an end“. They can still travel, with precautions, and therefore it is not a boom and not a bust either, according to him.

“I think there is a tax benefit with the 100% used and new depreciation. They can get it on new [aircraft], but the used depreciation may or may not stay, depending on whether President Trump gets re-elected,” he said.

He does, however, believe that the US markets will go down if President Trump does not win the election. “The country will get a debt and we will see a dent,” said Ittihadieh.

He encouraged those in the industry to have a longer-term view rather than a quarter-by-quarter one: “The world business economy needed a reset and we got it.”

Meanwhile, in Asia, China will be a key player “if corridors are opened“. Also, he believes there will be an entrance of a new audience for business aviation. “We will see them starting to use it truly as a business tool,” he said.

In his opinion, it is going to take 5 years to restore global activity to the levels seen in December 2019. “If America is on fire, our business is on fire. But if it is simmering, then so is our business.”

Freestream has partnered with the Zeitz Foundation’s 1 Million Trees Program to offset the carbon footprint of its aircraft over the next 10 years. Ittihadieh also placed his confidence in hydrogen-powered flight as the future of sustainable aircraft.