Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President of VREF True story: A man calls Jason after buying an airplane. He is thrilled. He thinks he got a great deal. The broker told him the market was hot. The airplane was going to disappear. Another buyer was supposedly circling. He had to move fast. So he did. Then Jason asks him three questions. And after the third question, there is silence. The kind of [...]

Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President of VREF Some of the biggest losses in aviation have nothing to do with flying the aircraft. No accident. No engine failure. No runway incident. No maintenance event. Just a deal that changes direction, a few assumptions that never get documented, and a transaction that ends up in court. In this episode of The Truth About the Market, Jason walks through a real legal case in [...]

Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President of VREF Most aircraft deals do not fail because the airplane is bad. They fail because the assumptions were bad. A buyer thinks they negotiated certainty. A seller thinks they preserved flexibility. The broker tries to keep momentum alive. The attorneys tighten the language. The pre-buy begins. And suddenly, everyone realizes they were not operating from the same deal. In this episode of *The Truth About [...]

Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President of VREF The post-COVID aircraft market is over. Not cooling. Not pausing. Not “normalizing” in the way people like to say when they want to soften the truth. Over. In this episode of The Truth About the Market, Jason breaks down the Q2 2026 market numbers and explains why the aircraft market has fully unwound from the extraordinary conditions of 2021 and 2022. The headline is [...]

Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President of VREF Everyone is looking at charts right now. Asking prices. Inventory counts. Scraped listing data. AI-generated market summaries. And most of them are missing the same thing. The market is moving. It is just not moving where they are looking. In this episode of The Truth About the Market, Jason breaks down why aircraft markets rarely reveal stress through public pricing first. They reveal it [...]

Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President of VREF The headlines say the pre-owned aircraft market is flourishing. Deals are closing faster. Pricing is stabilizing. Buyers are active. But the data tells a very different story. Inventory is essentially flat year over year. Asking prices have dropped materially. And yet transaction volume is collapsing. That is not a normal buyer’s market. In this episode of The Truth About the Market, Jason breaks down the [...]

Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President of VREF General aviation buyers love to compare airplanes. Vision Jet versus Epic. Jet versus turboprop. Speed versus payload. Range versus cost. But that’s only part of the decision. In this episode of The Truth About the Market, Jason breaks down why the aircraft itself is often not where the real risk begins. The risk starts earlier, in the assumptions, the transaction structure, the people advising [...]

Why Aircraft Coverage Is Becoming a Market Signal, Not Just a Cost Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President of VREF Aircraft insurance used to feel like a fixed expense. You bought the airplane. You called your broker. You got coverage. You moved on. That world is changing. Insurance is no longer just protection. It is a capital-driven pricing system that reflects how the market sees your aircraft, your records, your maintenance, your [...]

Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President of VREF Aircraft transactions used to be simple. Buyer. Seller. Broker. Attorney. Escrow. Pre-buy. Now a single deal can involve brokers, support teams, transaction managers, in-house counsel, outside counsel, lenders, insurers, tax advisors, maintenance consultants, and pre-buy facilities. And somehow… deals are not getting easier. In this episode of The Truth About the Market, Jason breaks down how modern aircraft transactions became over-layered, over-managed, and harder [...]

Podcast: The Truth About the Market Host: Jason Zilberbrand, President of VREF The first shock is always obvious. Fuel moves. Rates stay high. Headlines hit. Everyone reacts. But markets don’t actually change in the moment of impact. They change in how people respond to it. In this episode of The Truth About the Market, Jason breaks down what’s happening now — the second wave of market stress. Not panic. Not collapse. But something far more dangerous: a slow erosion of [...]