VesselsValue has calculated that the global fleets of ships and aircraft mirror each other in value closely, but have been heading in different directions during the pandemic.
Darren Biddlecombe, senior aviation analyst at the UK valuation platform, said aircraft values have generally fallen during the Covid-19 pandemic, which is not surprising.
"However, other appraisers have typically reduced their values in hindsight several months or even quarters later, while VV's [VesselsValue] values have tracked the market on each individual day," he said.
He added that valuation rivals have recently reported larger declines since January 2020, but this is because some of their starting values before Covid-19 were over-optimistic even then.
The company has come up with some interesting comparisons between the two asset classes.
Boeing 777 versus capesize
The first uses the Boeing 777, a large widebody aircraft that typically flies intercontinentally, so is equated to a capesize bulker by VesselsValue.
The Airbus A320 is a narrow body plane that flies within continents and is compared to a handy containership.
Since January 2020, a generic five-year-old Boeing 777 has decreased by $7m or 10% in price, from $64.1m to $57.1m.
In comparison, a standard capesize of the same age has seen its value rise $14.4m, from $33.9m to $48.3m — up 42.5% since the start of 2020.
An Airbus A320 built in 2016 has lost $3.76m in value at $25.6m, representing a decrease of 12.9%.
Boxship outstrips Airbus
Over the same time period, the containership has added $28.7m in value, from $17.6m to $46.3m — a jump of 163%.
Biddlecombe said the figures confirm what is obvious: that the aviation sector is now suffering following many boom years.
Contrastingly, after a mostly bear market in shipping since 2008, the majority of sectors are now thriving.
The total value of the widebody commercial passenger fleet, including newbuildings, was $463bn at the end of September.
VesselsValue said the world's fleet of capesizes, VLCCs, suezmaxes, aframaxes, ultra-large and neo-panamax containerships, VLGCs and large LNG carriers comes in at $464bn.
Meanwhile, the total value of the narrow-body commercial passenger fleet was $874bn.
The rest of the shipping fleet, comprising the remaining bulkers, tankers, boxships, gas carriers, vehicle carriers, reefers, ro-ro and cruiseship tonnage, was $845bn.
This gives a total for aviation of $1.34trn, against shipping's $1trn.
