Bizjet Deliveries To Reach Near 700 in 2021

JetNet is forecasting the final number of new business jets delivered during 2021 to be “just shy of 700,” the research firm said in its December JetNet iQ Pulse newsletter. That number is about 11 percent over 2020, and next year’s total should climb another 12 percent to about 770 jets. 

Because of the lack of inventory of late-model jets, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of jets of all sizes are benefitting, but especially Textron Aviation with its deep product lineup. “For the OEMs,” JetNet said, “2021 has been and will continue to be a year to long remember, when orders were well in excess of deliveries, and firm order backlogs were replenished.”

When the Covid pandemic first took hold, OEMs laid off and furloughed workers and cut production in anticipation of reduced demand, but that soon turned around. Now they face the challenge of accelerating production while suppliers are facing their own problems with material and personnel shortages. 

“Further production rate increases are on the horizon,” the newsletter went on, “bolstered by robust demand signals, but constraints driven by highly competitive labor markets throughout the aerospace supply chain represent tangible limits to growth that are a front-and-center focus of management.”