As the Aircraft Electronics Association officially opened the doors to its annual convention today, avionics makers were mulling the results of an industry report showing that sales dipped by 6.4 percent to $2.26 billion last year.
According to AEA’s latest Avionics Market Report, sales were down from the $2.42 billion reported in 2015 and $2.53 billion in 2014. AEA, which is holding its trade show this week in New Orleans, first published its avionics market survey in 2013. Twenty-one avionics manufacturers participate.
“It is disappointing that total worldwide sales have decreased in each of the last two years,” said AEA president Paula Derks. “However, we did see some progress in the fourth quarter. This marks the second straight year where the fourth quarter was the strongest period for sales, so it will be interesting to observe whether those late-year surges continue into future years.”
Fourth quarter sales reached $597 million, up almost $50 million from the third quarter of 2016.
Sales last year were nearly evenly divided with retrofits accounting for 49.4 percent of the market, or $1.118 billion, and forward-fit applications making up 50.6 percent at $1.144 billion. That marked the lowest dollar amount of forward-fit sales recorded in the last four years, AEA noted. By contrast, the retrofit market showed an increase in its percentage of total sales for the fourth straight year.
According to the companies that separated their total sales figures between North America and other international markets, 66.3 percent of the 2016 sales volume occurred in the U.S. and Canada while 33.7 percent of volume came from other international markets.
