Redbird Flight, the company that makes a lineup of low-cost full motion flight training devices for a wide variety of users, announced that it has worked a deal to make it easier for its customers to finance a Redbird Sim. The announcement might not seem like big news, but in the context of the current aviation marketplace, it’s kind of a big deal.
After the recession of 2008 brought on by the subprime loan fiasco, one of the economically devastating but entirely predictable outcomes was the vice-like tightening of credit, an effect that despite rock bottom interest rates continued to put a damper on the new airplane market.
Even when prospective buyers could line up financing, those deals were often bundled with restrictions that put added cost or risk on the buyers’ side.
In the case of a Redbird Sim, it’s hard to understand a financial institution’s reluctance to check “approved” on a loan. After all, unlike an airplane, a sim can’t fly away, and it’s not going to depreciate greatly in value, so the security of the loan has built in safeguards. But probably because the product is so unfamiliar to those of us who aren’t versed in things that fly (or simulate things that fly), maybe the reluctance is understandable.
So Redbird decided to do something to smooth the process by partnering with Bank of the Ozarks (NASDAQ:OZRK) Business Aviation Group, which as you an probably tell by the name, knows about aviation, to create Redbird Finance, a program that provides ready made finance options for Redbird customers while saving them the hassle of trying to educate their lender.
Redbird plans to announce additional details of the program at its annual Migration Flight Training Conference, to be held in San Marcos, TX at Redbird’s Skyport facility onOctober 24, 25, and 26. Plane & Pilot will be there, with editor-in-chief Isabel Goyer participating in a panel on the event’s opening day. To learn more about Migration visit: www.imagineflight.org/migration.
