Cessna Citation Ascend Makes European Public Debut

Textron Aviation’s Cessna Citation Ascend is making its European show debut at Germany’s Aero Friedrichshafen. The new midsize model touched down at the show site on Tuesday morning and is parked alongside its Citation Longitude sibling, which is also making its first appearance at the event.

The Ascend, registered as N502XL, is conducting a demonstration tour of Europe that started at the London-area Farnborough airport on April 2. It is making multiple stops across Central and Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean region, and Scandinavia.

The super-midsize Longitude is the largest in the U.S. manufacturer’s lineup and received EASA certification back in 2021. According to Textron's Europe sales v-p Duncan Van De Velde, the company is hopeful that EASA will validate the Ascend’s FAA type certificate in the second quarter. 

Van De Velde told AIN that multiple features introduced on the Ascend were proposed by members of Textron’s XLS customer advisory board. These include windows in the flat-floor cabin that are 15% larger, Bongiovi Aviation’s speakerless sound system, and a wireless phone charger built into a ledge on the side panels, as well as 19 USB ports and Gogo’s Galileo HDX connectivity system. Cabin acoustics have been improved with new door seals and curtains.

The flight deck features the Garmin G5000 avionics suite with three flight displays. This is new to the XLS family, which previously employed the Collins Pro Line 21 system. It also marks completion of the transition to all Garmin avionics on in-production Citation models.

The Ascend’s Pratt & Whitney Canada PW545D turbofans deliver 100 pounds of additional thrust per engine versus the PW545Cs on the earlier XLS/XLS+s. Carrying four passengers, the model can fly 1,940 nm, which Van De Velde said supports nonstop trips throughout Europe. The twinjet also features a Honeywell auxiliary power unit that can be left running while the crew helps passengers on the ground and completes other tasks at FBOs.

The latest Citation offers maintenance intervals of 18 months or 800 flight hours and the PW545D engines have a time between overhaul of 6,000 hours, which represents a 1,000 hour increase on earlier members of the turbofan family (and 500 hours more specifically for the hot section). Operators can spread the cost of support through Textron's ProParts and ProTech fixed rate contracts and on this basis hourly direct operating costs are estimated at around $2,200.

Since the latest member of the Citation Excel/XLS family was launched at the EBACE 2023 show in Geneva, it has attracted multiple orders in Europe. One prospective new customer is an entrepreneur based at a Mediterranean location who already owns a smaller Citation M2 jet and is now looking add an Ascend and a Latitude to support longer business trips, Van De Velde told AIN.

According to Textron, Europe is home to more than 1,700 of its turbine aircraft. These include over 850 Cessna Citation business jets, 450 Beechcraft King Air turboprops and 175 Cessna Caravan turboprops based in Europe.  Examples of these will be joined on the manufacturer’s static display along with a various piston-engined models and the all-electric Pipistrel Velis Electro.