The global aviation market has seen a reduction in income and widening of terms since 2010. Currently, the worldwide aviation market is witnessing premium rate increases not seen since the beginning of the soft insurance cycle back in 2010. Such a hardening of premium rates and a tightening of terms and conditions presents an opportunity for existing insurance providers to recoup losses sustained over the soft cycle period. The US general aviation [GA] market has been singled out for particular focus as it encompasses the largest proportion of the worldwide GA market.

The report aims to provide an insight into the US general aviation market and its profitability from a descriptive profit or loss viewpoint over the medium term. It leverages various sources and datasets, in addition to questionnaires completed by market participants, to provide an estimate of the total market premium and sustained market losses since 2010. Further, the premium rate changes achieved by the client are considered as to their adequacy levels in an aggregated manner while taking past reductions into consideration.

The report concludes that additional data is needed to accurately determine the profitability of the US GA market since 2010. The datasets relied heavily on the dataset provided by the client, which results in a skewing of the premium level and claims as the hull values were only available from the data provided by the client. In combination with the accident datasets an estimate of the aggregate loss levels and resulting profitability was provided per aircraft category. Additional datasets would be needed to provide a more detailed view into the market. Such dataset would need to be acquired from the client's competitors. However, this could prove tricky as it is doubtful competitors would be willing to provide their own premium rates and claims data to their own competitor. Such data, if provided, would also certainly be subject to confidentiality provisions between the insurer and insured, resulting in averages or mismatching of datasets between those provided by the insurers active in the US GA market. However, the report was able to provide an estimate as to the profitability and can be used as a framework for further research.