GAMA: Bizjet, Piston Deliveries Up, Turboprops Down

Boosted by business jet and piston shipments, general aviation airplane billings and deliveries rose 12.9 percent and 7.8 percent year-over-year, respectively, according to first-half 2019 statistics released last month by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA). The turboprop and rotorcraft segments declined.

Total airplane billings saw a $1 billion boost for the first six months of the year to $9 billion as jet deliveries increased by 35 units year-over-year to 316, an improvement of 12.5 percent.

Pilatus continues to ramp up production on its PC-24 light jet, handing over 16 in the first half of 2019, an increase of 13 over the previous year. Gulfstream boosted deliveries of its large cabin offerings from 37 in the first half of 2018 to 50 in the same period this year as it spools up production of its G500, which entered service in the second half of 2018. Brazil's Embraer increased its overall deliveries year-over-year from 31 to 36, adding four Phenom 300s and four Legacy 500s over its previous output, along with its first Praetor 600. Textron bumped up its Citation output by six from 84 to 90. Bombardier’s delivery totals declined from 65 in the first half of 2018 to 59 in the same period this year as the Canadian airframer handed over seven fewer Challengers (it now groups the 350 and 650 together) and one less Learjet, compared with two additional Globals. Honda Aircraft remained static with its HondaJet, delivering 17 in the first six months of both years.

Dassault Aviation will release its first-half Falcon deliveries this month, and the current GAMA report does not reflect the French OEM’s 2018 deliveries in its business jet total for the first half of that year.

Among bizliner-class aircraft, Boeing did not deliver any private aircraft through the first half of 2019, compared with four the previous year, while Airbus had no deliveries in the first half of 2018, but delivered two ACJ320neos during the first six months of this year.

Turboprops Encounter Headwinds

Turboprop deliveries, however, dropped by 11.4 percent, with high-end pressurized models seeing an even greater erosion of 24 percent. Pilatus was the only pressurized turboprop manufacturer to not experience a decline as the company delivered 31 PC-12s in the first six months of both 2018 and 2019. Textron saw a drop off of nearly 50 percent in its twin-engine King Air 350 deliveries year-over-year, moving from 25 in the first half of 2018 to 13 through the first six months of this year, while simultaneously increasing the number of its smaller C90GTx and 250 siblings handed over by five and six aircraft, respectively.

Florida-based Piper handed over 14 of its single-engine turboprops in the first half of the year, compared with 23 last year. While deliveries of its M500 rose from eight in the first half of 2018 to 13 in the same period this year, its M600 spiraled, moving from 15 deliveries from January through June last year, to just one this year. According to the manufacturer, it saw a rise in demand for M350 and M500 models for Q1 and Q2 immediately following a busy Q4 2018 M600 delivery period, and it expects to ratchet up M600 deliveries again in the second half of the year.

Daher delivered three fewer TBMs this year, due possibly to the ramp up on its newly-introduced TBM 940, which entered service in the second quarter of the year. Piaggio handed over one fewer twin Avanti Evo than it did a year ago.

“While the year-to-date aircraft shipments are mixed, this should not obscure the outlook for a bright future for general aviation,” said GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce. “Our mid-year report shows new aircraft reaching entry-into-service milestones, with additional models expected to enter service before the end of 2019.”

Rotorcraft Down

The rotorcraft segment also experienced a slowing of deliveries, by 15.8 percent in the first half of 2019, with turbine-powered helicopters down 11.3 percent. Deliveries declined from 337 in 1H 2018 to 299 in the first half of this year, while total billings decreased from $1.7 billion to $1.5 billion.

Airbus Helicopters was the lone airframer to buck the trend, increasing its deliveries year-over-year by more than 5 percent. The OEM boosted deliveries of its light H125/H130 by 10, and its H145 by six, while its output of H135s dipped by seven in the first half of this year.

Bell saw its deliveries drop by nearly 20 percent in the first six months of 2019. The Textron subsidiary is transitioning from the 407GXP, which had 33 deliveries in the first half of 2018, to the 407GXi (launched last year) which had 19 through the first six months of 2019. Deliveries of the 505 also declined from 59 to 48 year-over-year.

Italian manufacturer Leonardo also experienced a decline year-over-year of approximately 25 percent, delivering 18 fewer helicopters in the first half of 2019. Half that total is attributed to the AW119Kx. After handing over nine of the single-engine rotorcraft in 1H 2018, there were no deliveries in the same span this year.

Enstrom, which delivered three of its turbine-engine 480 light helicopters in the first half of 2018, also delivered none through the first six months of this year.

California-based Robinson Helicopters saw its deliveries of the R66 diminish by 25 percent year-over-year.