During the first quarter 2016 ACJ and BBJ narrow and wide-by aircraft shipments stand at a total of 1 aircraft; a 737 BBJ.
In the business jet market, Bombardier business jet shipments declined by 14 units; made up by a decline on Global series shipments, but the largest contributor was surprisingly Learjet deliveries down from nine in Q4 2015 to just one in Q1 2016.
Gulfstream business jets still remain healthy; the manufacturer also recorded a drop is Q1 2016 shipments, down by 5 aircraft, but still remain at 27.
Dassualt business jets record shipments on a half annual basis and therefore do not appear in the first quarter figures.
Embraer executive jets marked a significant increase in shipments to 23 aircraft in the quarter 2016; the large part of these being the Legacy 450 and 500 models.
Textron Aviation’s Cessna Citation models shipped well during the period with 17 aircraft recorded as delivered during Q1 2016 from across the Cessna Citation model range. Overall Textron delivered 34 Cessna aircraft.
New player Honda Aircraft shipped three Hondajet aircraft during the first quarter.
Overall there were 122 business jet deliveries recorded during the Q1 2016 period.
The business jet market therefore declined by 4.7% in Q1 2016 from 128 aircraft in Q1 2015; equating to a reduction in 6 business jets.
“The entire industry is feeling the effect of retrenchment in the energy sector; as well as global geopolitical and economic insecurity” said GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce, and as reported in AIN.
Editor comment:
The General Aviation Association (GAMA) report aligns the downturn in the energy sector along with general economic uncertainties as a prevailing contributing factor to the downturn in the business jet and general aviation sector delivery shipments.
Whilst these condition certainly have not been at their very best, considering we have seen a reduction of only 6 business aircraft shipments; this is a relatively small number which could be caused by a variety of factors; notwithstanding the current geopolitical and economic conditions.
Therefore readers in my view have little to be concerned about with what is a relatively flat line delivery trend; a view shared by industry analyst Brian Foley. By year-end we could see a levelling out, or even an increase in business jet deliveries.