Sergey Petrossov’s Aero Ventures Targets the Off-Market Layer of a Tightening Large Jet Market
Large jets are the one corner of the pre-owned market still growing. JETNET counted 332 large jet transactions in the first half of 2026, up 3.8% while total pre-owned volume fell 10.8%. Amstat puts just 5.1% of the heavy jet fleet up for sale, against a 10-year average of 7%, and median heavy jet values are up 14% year to date. When the most desirable aircraft rarely reach a public listing, more of the deal flow happens off-market.
The aircraft transacting off-market in that segment are frequently among the most sought-after in their price tier.
How Off-Market Transactions Actually FormÂ
The phrase “off-market” covers distinct situations that have little in common beyond the absence of a public listing. Denise Wilson, founder of The Jet Agent, identifies three categories in her analysis of off-market deals: the Undecided Owner, who hasn’t engaged a broker but would sell to the right buyer at the right price; the Pre-Market seller, who has signed a listing agreement but whose aircraft hasn’t gone live on any platform yet; and the “If You Hit My Number” owner, who has no intention of publicly listing at all but will transact on terms that work.
Each requires a different kind of access. Reaching the Undecided Owner demands market intelligence and targeted outreach. Pre-Market inventory is accessible only through broker relationships. The “If You Hit My Number” seller is reachable only through networks built over years.
The process that follows an off-market inquiry has its own mechanics. A credible approach typically involves demonstrating that a real buyer exists with specific requirements, moving through an NDA if the owner requests discretion, and evaluating the aircraft against criteria before any negotiation begins. Wilson noted that without formal representation, sellers face real exposure: back-to-back transactions where a middleman captures spread without either party’s knowledge, or negotiations where the seller is the only unrepresented party. “Every seller deserves representation,” she wrote, “especially during off-market conversations where deals unfold without the safeguards of a formal listing.”
Wilson’s firm tracks aircraft that are available but never advertised, alongside the publicly listed inventory, because the unlisted segment is large enough to matter even in light jets. In the large cabin tier, where inventory is tightest, the incentive to stay off public listings is stronger still.
Why Information Asymmetry Concentrates at the TopÂ
Several forces push off-market activity specifically into the large cabin segment. Sellers of ultra-high-value aircraft often have legitimate incentives to avoid public listing. A plane appearing on JETNET for 200-plus days signals something about seller motivation. An estate sale or liquidity event may be information the seller prefers to keep private. Discretion is itself a selling condition, and a formal listing sacrifices it.
Inventory figures capture this dynamic. JETNET found that for-sale inventory fell to 6.6% of the fleet in the first half of 2026, down from 7.3% in 2025, and Global Jet Capital attributes the decline to fewer younger aircraft being listed. Sellers with desirable aircraft don’t have much incentive to list in a tightening-inventory environment. More simply transact privately once a credible buyer appears.
Buyers at this price point operate on a parallel logic. Access to unadvertised inventory is a competitive advantage. Aircraft surfacing through relationships rather than public listings often move faster, carry less competitive pressure, and offer more negotiating flexibility than equivalent aircraft sitting on public listings. JETNET’s average days on market reached 98 in the twelve months to June 2026 and topped 100 days for aircraft 16 years and older. A buyer with the right relationships can shorten that considerably.
The data gap compounds the problem for anyone working without those relationships. JETNET’s average asking price for large jets fell 15.7% to $12.63 million in the twelve months to June 2026, while Amstat reports median heavy jet values up 14% year to date. Listing data and value data point in opposite directions, and neither captures condition, maintenance history, or program enrollment. True transaction prices, what aircraft actually sold for with which contingencies and total cost of ownership, have historically stayed inside the deals themselves. The information advantage belongs to brokers with deep transaction histories.
What a Curated Platform Model OffersÂ
The dominant brokerage model treats public listing as the primary distribution channel. It works well for sellers who want broad market exposure and are indifferent to who knows their aircraft is available. It performs less well for the off-market categories Wilson described, where sellers require discretion and buyers need access to inventory that won’t surface in a standard search.
Aero Ventures built its platform for the second population. Sergey Petrossov told Sherpa Report that the platform “aggregates market intelligence — true transaction prices, on- and off-market availability, and detailed aircraft specifications — and produces instant fair market values.” Access to unadvertised inventory is a load-bearing feature of the design, not a secondary offering.
Papariella, who founded Aero Ventures, was direct about what the model rejects. Speaking to EVA International at launch, he described the problem plainly: “Some listings are used by brokers to generate leads rather than offer real inventory.” The curation model is designed to exclude that practice. Access is screened case-by-case, with the platform targeting aircraft at $10 million and above and limiting entry to vetted participants.
Per Sherpa Report’s interview with Petrossov, the selection logic is explicit: “It is not about showing everything. It is about providing the best, most accurate, most actionable information and pairing it with high touch consultative support to help clients make the smartest decisions.” Approved users gain access to off-market listings alongside AI-generated valuations, ownership cost simulations, and five-year residual value forecasts, all in a single environment rather than assembled through fragmented broker outreach.
Network as InfrastructureÂ
A platform that claims off-market access has to demonstrate that the access is real. The off-market layer runs on relationships: knowing which owner is quietly open to the right offer, whose aircraft is pre-market pending photos, which estate is looking to move quickly. Those relationships don’t transfer to a platform simply by describing them, and a launch announcement can’t replicate what took years to build.
Papariella and Petrossov bring a combined transaction history that addresses this directly. Together, the Aero Ventures team has closed more than $5 billion in aircraft transactions. Per Private Jet Card Comparisons, Papariella built Jet Edge from four aircraft to more than 100 aircraft and $600 million in revenue before Vista Global’s acquisition in 2022. The off-market access the platform promises is backed by the network those careers produced.
The platform’s role is to structure what those relationships surface. Buyers access off-market inventory and verified valuation data in one place rather than relying on multiple broker conversations. Sellers can test qualified buyer interest discreetly before committing to a public listing, or transact directly if the right buyer already exists in the network. Both parties arrive pre-screened.
The Market Conditions Supporting This ModelÂ
Dealer transaction volume is still rising. Members of the International Aircraft Dealers Association, who account for roughly 40% of global pre-owned sales, closed 1,155 deals in the first three quarters of 2026, up from 983 a year earlier. IADA Executive Director Lou Seno summed up the third quarter plainly: “Overall, the market is strong and maturing.”
That tight inventory is the critical variable for the off-market argument. IADA dealers bought 118 aircraft into their own inventory in the first half of 2026, an 87% increase, rather than wait for listings to appear. In a category where the most desirable aircraft are already in short supply relative to demand, the incentive to avoid public listing strengthens rather than weakens.
Aero Ventures doesn’t claim to capture or control that deal flow. Off-market large jet deals run through channels that existed long before the platform launched on September 3, 2025. The relevant question is narrower: whether a curated, data-driven environment can give qualified participants better access to each other than the existing fragmented network provides. The transaction data Aero Ventures accumulates going forward will be the most direct answer.
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