On the heels of March 23 agreements to prepare China to build Cessna airplanes, the company followed up with yet another agreement. This one appoints Beijing’s DINGSHA GA Tech Service Center as a Cessna Citation authorized service facility. According to a press release, the new facility will provide maintenance for North Asian operators of airplanes in the Citation XLS+ family, the Citation Sovereign, and the Citation X.
Another statement issued at the Asian Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition (ABACE) in Shanghai came from Cessna Vice President of Sales for Asia and Asia Pacific Bill Harris, who said, “Overall demand for light and mid-size business jets in Asia is undoubtedly increasing, and we are finding customers eager for deliveries ‘now’ rather than later. We are seeing particularly high interest from customers who, for example, already own or operate a mid-size Citation such as the Citation XLS+ and are planning for future purchases. The Citation Latitude represents a logical next step to a new, more advanced Citation.”
Meanwhile, Cessna’s Mike Shih, vice president of Strategy and Business Development, said, “We foresee China being one of the top 10 countries for business jet ownership globally by 2025, aided enormously by the ongoing liberalization of the country’s airspace. … We at Cessna are equally eager to play our part in helping develop Chinese business aviation from infancy to maturity as quickly as possible.”
