Story ID: 732
Piaggio Renews Focus on Business Aviation
By: Chad Trautvetter
Caption: Piaggio has been ramping up operations at its new production facility at Riviera Airport in Villanova d’Albenga, Italy.
Word Count: 470
Renato Vaghi, who was appointed Piaggio Aerospace’s CEO nine months ago, said the Italian aircraft manufacturer is refocusing on business aviation. “Last year, we restructured as a clearer [more focused] company,” he told AIN. “We’re going through a big transformation.”

Part of this restructuring includes spinning off its engine business, which makes components and assembles for the PW206 and PW207 under license from Pratt & Whitney Canada, as well as manufactures parts for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter’s F-135 engine. That will leave Piaggio purely as an aircraft company, with the P.180 Avanti Evo turboprop twin as its commercial product and in-development Hammerhead UAV on the defense side.

Since taking over in August, Vaghi said Mubadala-owned Piaggio has been ramping up operations at its new production facility at Riviera Airport in Villanova d’Albenga, Italy. According to Vaghi, the company currently has a 1.5-year backlog for the Evo and plans to increase the production rate to 30 aircraft per year by 2020.

The first-ever Evo was delivered from this facility in October, while the first Evo for a U.S. customer—West Coast Aviation Services—left the plant at the end of last year. A special-mission version of the turboprop is now being prepped at the facility to be delivered “in a few days,” he said. On Monday, Piaggio announced the sale of the first Evo in the UK; this airplane will be handed over in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, Piaggio has been working to improve customer support. “We’ve started to have more dialogue with customers to fix issues, and its beginning to have a positive effect,” Vaghi noted. “This communication resulted in us offering the Evo’s landing gear as a retrofit for Avanti II customers, as well as the more cost-effective steel brakes to replace the stock carbon brakes for Avanti Is and IIs.”

He said more improvements are coming for the P.180, many of which will be rolled out over the next year or so. Further, Piaggio has “two or three larger initiatives” that it plans to announce in about three years. However, Vaghi would not elaborate on what the improvements would be, saying only, “They will make the P.180 more competitive.”

In addition, Piaggio has invested in spare parts inventory for all P.180s at its depots in Genoa and in the U.S. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It has also started a newsletter to keep customers regularly updated on improvements being made throughout the support organization.

Vaghi is also looking to the future, admitting that the company is mulling a second business aircraft model. However, he said, “Our main focus right now is a healthier company, and only then will we really look at adding new models.”