Aircraft Comparison: Gulfstream G500 versus Gulfstream G450
Gulfstream's G500 is bigger, faster and can fly further than a G450.
With 300 aircraft delivered since 2005, Gulfstream’s G450 was a popular and successful replacement to the – also popular and successful – Gulfstream GIV. With a larger cabin, longer range and higher speed the new Gulfstream G500 looks set to follow this success.
As the table shows the G500 will offer many improvements over the G450: faster speed, longer range, larger cabin, higher altitude (which allows you to fly over bad weather), more baggage space and even lower pressure in the cabin (which reduces effects of jet lag).
Gulfstream has said that the G500 is not a replacement to the G450 and that it will keep selling and building G450s. This is probably more about reassuring people waiting for G450s now, as it is hard to see why many customers looking for an new aircraft from 2018 onwards would chose a G450 over a brand new G500. It is worth remembering that if you order a new G550 today you will have to wait until about 2016 for delivery.
At the moment there are around 20 G450s for sale – less than 8 per cent of the global fleet – with advertised prices ranging between $18.75 million for a 2005 aircraft to $31.25 million for one that delivered last year. Existing owners and financiers are always concerned that new replacement aircraft will hit the resale value of their own aircraft and values of the existing fleet typically fall when a manufacturer stops building that aircraft type.
However, it is too early to worry now. On the whole Gulfstream’s larger cabin aircraft have great history of retaining their value and it is four years before the first G500 will arrive. It always takes time for the effects to be felt (residual values do not fall the day the first aircraft delivers). So far, G550 values have held up up well since G650s started being delivered.
Realistically the G500 will will probably not be an issue for G450s until 2020. No one knows what the market will be like then.
