HARTFORD, Conn. — Private jet sales are rising again, climbing out of a deep recession when the company plane was an easy target for spending cuts.

The chief executive of General Dynamics Corp., maker of Gulfstream jets and owner of Bath Iron Works, says corporate customers are back and wealth creation is bringing out shoppers for private jets.

The president of jet engine maker Pratt & Whitney says deliveries for private planes are growing after hitting bottom in 2011.

The improving market has not been universal. Signs of strength have been in large-cabin planes, while sales of small and mid-sized planes stall.

Credit markets also have not fully recovered, making it harder to finance some private-plane purchases.

Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace consultant, compared the industry’s uneven improvement with the bumpy economic recovery.

“In its own very high-end way, it mirrors what’s going on,” he said. “It’s the haves and the have-nots, but it’s all haves.”

Total business jet deliveries were valued at $20.9 billion in 2013, compared with a peak of $24.7 billion in 2008, Aboulafia said. The industry hit bottom at $18 billion in deliveries in 2012, he said.

The bottom half of jet sales, which accounts for jets costing $4 million to $26 million, fell nearly 56 percent, “one of the worst market cataclysms to ever impact any mature industry segment,” he said.

The poor performance of small and mid-sized business jet purchases are partly due to tight credit, while larger jet purchases are more likely to be self-financed, he said.

Edward Jones analyst Christian Mayes also cited as a reason a glut of smaller planes that were manufactured.