Cessna Aircraft Chairman, President, and CEO Jack Pelton told the National Business Aviation Association meeting in Orlando, Fla., Oct. 19 that the business aviation market may be improving.
“I’m far from ready to call a turnaround, but we do continue to see some encouraging developments,” said Pelton. “Financing is more readily available, used aircraft inventory is lowering, and prices for used aircraft have increased for the first time in several quarters. Average daily utilization figures for the Citation fleet have stopped dropping and bookings for maintenance work are on the rise. We are seeing signs of stabilization and some indicators that the business jet market is starting to move in a positive direction. Single-engine retail sales have been particularly strong in recent weeks, which is usually a forerunner for the rest of the product line.”
While Cessna did not bring its huge display to the NBAA convention floor, it did present nearly the full line of aircraft at the convention’s static display at Orlando Executive Airport. Shown there are the Citation X, Citation Sovereign, Citation XLS+, Citation Encore+, Citation CJ3, Citation CJ2+, Citation CJ1+ and a Citation Mustang. A CJ4 was present for one day of the show. A Cessna Grand Caravan and the Cessna Corvalis TT are on hand to represent Cessna’s line of turboprop and single-engine piston models.
“We’re going ‘back to basics’ this year at NBAA, concentrating on exhibiting our products at the static display and not having a booth in the convention hall,” Pelton said. “We do upward of 60 events a year, and NBAA is still one of just a handful of shows that truly brings people from throughout the world to one place for business aviation. This is increasingly important as the international markets seem less frozen than our domestic market right now, particularly Western Europe and South America.”
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