GAMA: YTD Business Jet, Turboprop Deliveries Climb

The industry is on track to deliver more business jets for the third consecutive year, having reached the bottom of the recent trough in 2012. According to third-quarter statistics released last month by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), 465 business jets were delivered worldwide in the first three quarters of this year, a gain of 4.3 percent year-over-year. Billings climbed to $15.7 billion from $15.5 billion. However, those numbers should rise since they lack third-quarter input from Dassault, which has chosen to release its delivery numbers biannually, at mid-year and year-end. In its calculations, GAMA removed the French airframer’s deliveries for the third quarter of 2014 to maintain the year-over-year comparison.

At the mid-year point, the OEMs were 4.1 percent behind the pace set last year, leading some analysts to question the industry’s continuing recovery, but a strong third quarter has pushed the tally ahead of the 446 jets shipped through the first nine months of last year. “Although the industry’s performance among sectors in the third quarter remained mixed, new and recently certified business jet models helped raise overall billings,” noted GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce.

Thanks primarily to deliveries of the Legacy 500, which began late last year, Embraer showed the biggest gain, up 17.2 percent from the first three quarters last year. The Brazilian manufacturer also added three Phenom 300s to its tally from the first three quarters of last year.

Bombardier benefitted from the introduction of a refreshed super-midsize, posting a 7.2-percent gain over the first nine months of last year. The 50 Challenger 350s it delivered exceeded its tally for the three quarters of last year by 15 aircraft. Though the Canadian OEM also saw a six-aircraft bump in the number of Learjet 70/75s it delivered year-over-year, its large-cabin offerings lost ground. The 52 Global 5000/6000s equated to three fewer aircraft than it handed over in the first nine months of 2014, and the 11 Challenger 605s represented just over half the number it delivered year-over-year. Thefollow-on Challenger 650 received EASA and FAA certification in November.

Gulfstream upped output of both its mid-range and large-cabin offerings by three and five, respectively, for a 7.4-percent gain in deliveries over the first nine months of last year.

Textron Aviation subsidiary Cessna eked out a nearly 2-percent rise during the first three quarters of the year, as it began deliveries of the Latitude midsize in August. However, the 13-aircraft gain in the number of CJ3+s and CJ4s handed over was offset by an equal decrease in the number of M2 and Sovereign+ deliveries.

One Aviation, which was formed earlier this year in a merger between Eclipse Aerospace and Kestrel Aircraft, saw the number of Eclipse 550 very light jet deliveries halved, to five from 10, year-over-year.

Turboprop Results

Though the turboprop segment as a whole declined 9.4 percent, the pressurized models, with 181 delivered in the first three quarters of the year, saw a 1.6-percent boost over the same period last year. French airframer Daher shipped three more TBM 900s than it did in the first three quarters of last year, for an improvement of 9 percent. Textron’s Beechcraft delivered two fewer King Airs year-over-year. Piper added one more Meridian to its 3Q 2014 total, and Italian manufacturer Piaggio reported delivery of just one Avanti Evo through the first three quarters of this year. Pilatus remained static, with 37 PC-12s delivered.

Helicopter Sector

Erosion in the rotorcraft industry, blamed in part on slumping oil prices, continued to manifest itself. Helicopter manufacturers delivered 480 turbine-powered rotorcraft in the first three quarters of the year, down from 525 in the same period last year, representing a slide of 8.6 percent year-over-year. The rotorcraft industry’s January-to-September billings retreated to $2.8 billion, from $3.6 billion in the first three quarters of last year, a slide of more than 20 percent.