King Airs, Light Jets Anchor Textron Aviation in LatAm

Latin America’s varied landscape and vast distances have shaped an appetite for business aircraft that can go where roads and infrastructure can’t, and Textron Aviation says that demand has made Brazil home to the largest installed turbine fleet outside the U.S. As LABACE 2026 spools up today in São Paulo, Marcelo Moreira, the company’s v-p of sales for Latin America, said Textron Aviation aircraft account for more than half of the turbine fleet across the broader region.

The OEM is showcasing that regional lineup this week at the Latin American business aviation show with a Cessna Citation Latitude, CJ3+, and M2, as well as a Beechcraft King Air 360 and Cessna Grand Caravan EX and Turbo Skylane. They are displayed alongside TAM Aviação Executiva, Textron Aviation’s authorized sales representative in Brazil.

More than 760 King Airs, 500 Citation business jets, and 240 Grand Caravans are in operation in Brazil, Moreira said. He attributed the concentration partly to the country’s size and the difficulty of ground transportation between many communities. “It’s a country with continental dimensions—north, south, east, west,” he said. “When you think about the business owners who need to get to places efficiently, our aircraft are very much used as a business tool throughout the country.”

King Airs remain especially strong in Brazil’s agriculture sector, where operators use the aircraft to reach farms growing soybeans, cotton, oranges, and coffee, as well as connecting rural areas with larger cities, Moreira said. He attributed the turboprop twin’s popularity in part to its ability to operate from unimproved runways.

The Citation M2 also performs well in the region due to its short-runway capability and low direct operating costs, with the CJ3+ also popular among light jet buyers. Buyers there tend to differ from those in the U.S., according to Moreira.

“There are owner-pilots who fly our light jets, but not as much as in the United States,” he noted. “More prominently, these are corporations or family businesses—people who need the aircraft to get closer to where they need to be.”

Moreira described a pattern of customers moving up through Textron’s product lines over time, from pistons to Caravan turboprop singles to King Airs, or from Caravans directly into Citations, as their businesses grow.

Moreira said there is strong Latin American interest in the in-development Beechcraft Denali, particularly given customer familiarity with the King Air line. “The Denali comes with the Beechcraft DNA, and our customers know that brand very well, so it fits very well within our portfolio,” he said.

He added that the company expects the Denali to perform well in both corporate and medevac missions, aided by its ability to operate from unimproved runways. Textron has not set a regional introduction timeline, Moreira said, though the company continues to target first deliveries in 2027 following the aircraft’s ongoing certification process.

Asked about service infrastructure supporting operators outside major metro areas, Moreira pointed to longstanding investments, including a Brazil-based parts warehouse and field service representatives based in Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Mexico. TAM Aviação Executiva, which serves as both a sales representative and an authorized service facility, has also invested in mobile service units and currently operates three service facilities in the country, according to Moreira.

Looking ahead, he sees growth potential across all of Textron Aviation’s Latin American product categories. “We continue to bring excitement, and with the development of new aircraft like the Beechcraft Denali, we’re super excited for it,” he concluded.