Textron Aviation Q2 Jet Deliveries Dip, Turboprops Climb

Textron Aviation delivered 40 Cessna Citations in the second quarter, down from 49 in the same period last year, though a stronger opening quarter left the manufacturer just three business jets behind its first-half 2025 pace. Commercial turboprop deliveries, however, climbed to 44 from 34 a year ago.

The Wichita-based Textron subsidiary posted revenues of $1.5 billion, up 1% ($22 million) from second-quarter 2025. The gain came from $17 million more in aircraft revenues and $5 million more from aftermarket parts and services, according to parent Textron Inc., with the aircraft side driven by pricing and held back by volume and mix.

Segment profit of $165 million was down $5 million from a year earlier. Textron pointed to manufacturing inefficiencies and the lower volume and mix of aircraft as the primary causes, partially offset by reduced warranty costs.

“Demand across jets and turboprops continued to be robust during the quarter, supporting a backlog of $8 billion,” CEO Lisa Atherton said during the company’s earnings call this morning.

Second-quarter jet deliveries included six Citation M2 Gen2s, nine CJ3+/CJ3 Gen2s, four CJ4 Gen2s, six Citation Ascends, nine Latitudes, and six Longitudes. A year earlier, the mix was eight M2 Gen2s, nine CJ3+s, seven CJ4 Gen2s, seven XLS Gen2s, 12 Latitudes, and six Longitudes. The Ascend succeeded the XLS Gen2 this year.

Turboprop shipments in the quarter were led by the SkyCourier, which jumped to 11 from four a year ago. Caravan deliveries edged down to 19 from 20, while King Airs rose to 14—nine King Air 260s and five King Air 360s—from 10. On the military side, no Beechcraft T-6 trainers were delivered, compared with three in the year-ago quarter, contributing to the company’s lower defense volume. Piston-engine deliveries, which include Pipistrel aircraft, totaled 93 versus 109 last year.

Productivity Improvement

Atherton discussed the operational work underway at Textron Aviation, framing throughput rather than demand as the constraint on growth. “Simply put, people want our products, and we have multi-year backlogs in many areas,” she said. “With that, we must become more efficient at meeting that demand. We need to more fundamentally address productivity, and that is where I’m focusing the organization.”

Workforce experience remains a central issue. Asked about the outlook for the aviation business in the second half and whether supply-chain pressures might ease, Atherton said, “We have about 50% of our workforce that has less than five years of experience, compared to 2019 when that was less than 30% that had that experience.” Attrition spiked during the Covid-19 pandemic and stayed high for an extended stretch, she said, but has since returned to normalized levels.

Atherton said the aviation division’s operational focus “is centered on three areas: investing in the workforce, improving factory execution, and strengthening the supply chain.” Capacity is being added in landing gear, milling, and paint operations, and engineering staffing on the production floor has been increased substantially to make the aircraft easier to build for a less-seasoned workforce. Producibility and process work is also underway on the King Air and light-jet lines.

Supplier performance has improved, though pockets of difficulty persist. “While we are still managing a handful of pain points, parts availability has improved significantly in recent years, leaving us with a more finite set of issues,” Atherton said. She singled out wing spars as a critical component that the company wants to dual-source, noting that late supplier deliveries force out-of-station work that a newer workforce is less equipped to absorb.

CFO David Rosenberg told analysts that closing the productivity and supply gap is “probably worth about $150 million of incremental profit to us, or about 200 basis points.” He said the aviation business should generate incremental margins of roughly 20% to 25%, and that while the improvement will not arrive quickly, “over the medium term, we’re going to get there.”

Meanwhile, flight testing is underway on the CJ4 Gen3 and M2 Gen3, and the CJ3 Gen3 is due to make its first flight before October. All three light jets are slated to enter service in 2027, Atherton said. The Beechcraft Denali turboprop single is in the closing stages of its flight-test program and is also slated to enter service in  2027. Separately, the company rolled out the 500th Citation CJ4 during the quarter.

On the sales front, Textron Aviation signed a multi-aircraft fleet purchase agreement with Platoon Aviation that, according to Atherton, will make the operator Europe’s largest Citation Longitude fleet operator. The manufacturer also reached a deal with SD Aviation covering two M2 Gen3s and a CJ3 Gen2, with options for three more light jets.

The company said it delivered its first SkyCouriers into the Philippines and the Republic of the Marshall Islands during the quarter. Both customers specified the 19-seat configuration along with the optional conversion kit that allows the aircraft to switch between all-passenger and all-cargo layouts. Textron Aviation also opened a service facility at Essendon Fields Airport in Melbourne, Australia, and NetJets took its first five Citation Ascends in the quarter.