With the ADS-B mandate coming into effect at the beginning of this year, it may not come as a surprise that avionics manufacturers had a good year in 2019. A lot of aircraft owners installing new, compliant transponders also chose to take advantage of recent innovations in avionics equipment, replacing round gauges with glass while their panels were in pieces. As a result, the industry topped $3 billion in total sales of general aviation avionics last year, according to the Aircraft Electronics Association.
It appears that the majority of customers upgraded well in time for the ADS-B implementation. The greatest year-over-year boost in sales was realized in 2018, when sales grew more than 17 percent over the previous year. In the first three quarters of 2019, the industry saw an increase of sales of more than 14 percent, yet the total increase for last year ended up just over 10 percent as compared with 2018.
The annual AEA Avionics Market Report includes net sales for all general aviation and business aircraft electronics—certified and non-certified—but does not include repairs and overhauls, extended warranty or subscription services. While the report includes worldwide sales, nearly 75 percent of the 2019 sales represented customers in the United States and Canada. Since AEA released its first Avionics Market Report in 2013, general avionics sales have grown by nearly 24 percent, from $2.43 billion to $3.01 billion. The report includes data collected from 23 avionics manufacturers by a third-party firm, which reports to AEA.
