Worldwide shipments of fixed-wing business and general aviation aircraft fell across all segments during the first nine months of 2016, as economic and political instability continued to squeeze demand for new platforms.
According to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), deliveries of piston-engined, turboprop and jet-engined business aircraft dropped by 3.5% to 1,504 units between January and the end of September – representing a 14.5% fall in the total shipment value to $13.4 billion.
“There’s no way to sugar-coat the fact that these numbers are not what we had wanted to see,” says GAMA president and chief executive Pete Bunce. “Unfortunately, they reflect the instability of the used aircraft market, coupled with complicating global economic and geopolitical factors.”
The association, headquartered in Washington DC, recorded 429 business jet deliveries in the nine months ending 30 September 2016 – 36 fewer than in the same period a year earlier. Bombardier shipped 109 Learjets, Challengers and Globals during the period – a fall of 26 units year on year – while Gulfstream saw its deliveries slide by 28 aircraft to 88.
The poor salesperformance of the G150 and G450 is behind the Savannah, Georgia-based airframer's recent decision to cease production of the midsize and large-cabin types: the final G150 will roll off the production line in 2017 after a 10-year run, while the 14-year-old G450 will bow out 12 months later.
Gulfstream
GAMA’s report does not include shipments of Dassault Falcon business jets for the full nine months, as the French airframer releases its deliveries and earnings at six-month intervals. However, Flight Fleets Analyzer records 27 Falcon deliveries for the period –five fewer than last year.
Elsewhere in the business jet sector, Cessna shipped 14 more Citations, almost entirely on the back of demand for its Latitude midsized business jet, which entered service in September 2015. Honda Aircraft, which began deliveries of its HA-420 HondaJet last December, handed over 16 units between January and September, including the first models into Europe. Deliveries of One Aviation’s Eclipse EA550 very light jet remained stable at five aircraft, while Embraer'snine-month total slid by a single unit to 74.
Soft demand for VIP airliners from the traditionally strong markets of China, Russia and the Middle East has hit Airbus and Boeing particularly hard, with the former delivering no green ACJ models between January and September. This compares with two units during the same period last year.
Shipments of BBJs fared a little better, at two aircraft – a 737-derived BBJ and a widebody BBJ777-300ER – although this is significantly lower than the eight green aircraft delivered in the first nine months of 2015.
Piston aircraft deliveries slid by 3.2% year on year to 696 units, triggered by a downturn in private flying and falling demand from international training schools. Only Cirrus bucked the downward trend, shipping 226 of its SR family of piston singles during the nine months covered by the report, GAMA reveals, compared with 204 units during the same period last year.
The turboprop sector generated what GAMA describes as a “bright spot” for the fixed-wing aircraft market, recording a 1.3% hike in deliveries to 379 units. The uptick was due entirely to a stellar performance from Pilatus: the Swiss airframer shipped 58 of its enhanced PC-12NGs – introduced in January – during the period, 21 more than during the first nine months of 2015.
Daher’s TBM 900 was one of the worst performers, recording a drop of 30 units year on year to six. This was a result of the introduction in April of the new flagship TBM 930, to which many of its TBM 900 orders were transferred. Overall, TBM deliveries fell by only four aircraft for the nine-month period, GAMA reveals, with 32 shipments recorded.
Pilatus
Despite the industry’s lacklustre performance, Bunce remains positive: “What is encouraging is that every GAMA airplane manufacturer has a new product development programme recently completed or currently under way, so optimism for the future runs high,” he says. Bunce is referring to a host of new designs set for introduction over the coming five years, including the Gulfstream G500/600, Cessna Citation Longitude and Hemisphere, Dassault Falcon 5X and Cirrus Vision Jet, deliveries of which are imminent.
He says the industry “is looking forward to working with the incoming Trump administration, the new US Congress, and other governments across the globe to highlight the importance of a vibrant general and business aviation industry with manufacturing, maintenance and overhaul jobs at its core”.
Source: Flight International
