Although most news about general aviation and business aviation in particular has largely been as bad as news about the economy, believe it or not there is some good news to report. All Things Aviation recently noted that the CEO of Cirrus Design Corp. is reporting that although international sales will be down 2% this year, domestic deliveries will be in the mid-300s. In fact, Cirrus plans to increase production to 6 planes a week but thus far has no plans to recall laid off employees back to work.
Meanwhile, Aerotrader.com recently reported that the Cessna Aircraft Company had announced that it has delivered its 200th Citation Mustang. The event was marked by a special ceremony at Cessna’s Kansas facility where it was noted that the current fleet of Citation Mustangs have already accumulated more than 34,000 flight hours and are now certified in 57 countries around the world.
And finally moving towards the future, Aerotrader.com has also noted a recent and lengthy article in Aviation Week entitled When Business Aviation Rebounds. The article was based upon a panel discussion of business aviation experts and concludes that we will start to see “A leaner, consolidated industry, more accountability, perhaps new forms of ownership and longer aircraft retention, a resurgent charter component… and a ‘pony.’” (You will have to read the article to find out what a “pony” is all about…)
The Aviation Week article is well worth a read and clearly shows the challenges faced by business aviation in the current economic and political environment and in the future once the global economy finally rebounds.
