Pilatus resumes US deliveries through year-end
First PC–12 Pro arrives
Swiss manufacturer Pilatus Aircraft announced the first U.S. delivery of its newest turboprop on November 4 and expects to send more aircraft through the end of the year, though the company—subject to a 39-percent tariff that prompted a halt to deliveries in August—did not commit beyond that.
The company wrote in an email that the PC–12 Pro accepted by customers at the company's North American headquarters in Colorado will be followed by additional PC–12 and PC–24 ferry flights to the United States in the coming months.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments November 5 in a case challenging the president's authority to impose the levies; the 39-percent rate charged on imports from Switzerland was specifically mentioned, according to the hearing transcript. Reuters reported November 6 that questions from the justices that signaled skepticism about the legal justification for the tariffs stirred speculation the tariffs could be struck down, though possibly be replaced with similar import tax rates with a different legal basis.
Meanwhile, Zbinden wrote, the Pilatus final assembly plant in Colorado and other U.S. locations that collectively employ about 400 people "need to be kept working at full capacity. The decision was therefore taken for this reason as well. Overall, however, this move will result in a considerable loss of earnings for Pilatus."
The PC–12 Pro was announced March 14, about two weeks before President Donald Trump announced new tariffs on most U.S. imports on April 2. The updated $6.8 million aircraft features a Garmin G3000 Prime flight deck and also added Garmin Autoland to the single-engine turboprop, of which 2,200 have been delivered worldwide since the model was introduced in 1994. According to Pilatus, the PC–12 logs more annual U.S. flight hours than its competitors, and has flown more than 11 million hours in all.
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