Turbine Pilot

High-end, large-cabin jet manufacturers (with maximum takeoff weights greater than 41,000 pounds) are stressed. Bombardier is building fewer of its Global 5000s and 6000s. Dassault’s sales are down, with just 15 Falcon 2000S/2000LXS/900LX and 7X models delivered in the second quarter. With the new 8X, Dassault’s fortunes may turn. Only Gulfstream, with 61 deliveries in the first half of 2016, is in a strong position. Bombardier’s Learjet offerings are reduced to one product—the Learjet 70/75—and GAMA’s report says only six of these have been delivered this year.

Turboprops and light jets show promise. Textron shipped 110 King Airs and Citations in the first half of 2016. Its Latitude and Longitude bizjets—and its Hemisphere project—prove the company is invested in the large-cabin niche. Embraer’s Phenom 300 shows strength, with more than 320 total deliveries; 26 in the first two quarters of 2016. With just nine in the same period, the company’s Phenom 100E is less popular. The newly certified Legacy 500 and Legacy 450 models seem to have a niche in the mid-size (20,000- to 41,000-pound maximum takeoff weight) category. The consistent sellers have been the single-engine turboprops, with Textron’s Cessna Caravan moving 32 units in the first half of 2016, Daher-Socata shipping 13 TBMs, and Pilatus shipping 41 PC-12NGs. Piper and Quest Aircraft, with eight and 16 deliveries for the first half of 2016, continue to soldier on. HondaJet remains a question mark for the time being.

And what of the very light jet phenomenon? “That’s a movement that never began,” said Richard Aboulafia, vice president of analysis at Teal Group Corp. “There was lots of talk and little cash.”

Aboulafia has hope for the light end of the turbine market: “The price point between $4 million and $5 million is its own ecosystem. It wasn’t hurt by the recession as much as other segments, so in that sense it defied gravity.” —Thomas A. Horne, Turbine Pilot Editor