Collects New Skyhawk, Caravan Orders

Cessna Aircraft Company kicked off this week's Singapore Airshow by noting the demand for its aircraft in the Asia-Pacific region is increasingly diverse... and announced two new orders to bolster that viewpoint.

"Not only has demand expanded for Cessna's line of products in the Asia-Pacific region, that demand covers many countries and spans all models," said Roger Whyte, senior vice president of Sales & Marketing for Cessna. "Recently, we've made our first commercial business jet sales in South Korea and Vietnam, and we've delivered our first personally owned Citation business jet to an individual in China.

"We are seeing outstanding response to our newest products, the Cessna SkyCatcher, the Citation Mustang and the Citation Columbus. The combination of performance and value that Cessna products offer is translating into great order activity throughout the Asia-Pacific region but especially in Australia, China, India and Japan."

Cessna delivered 160 new aircraft into the Asia-Pacific region in 2007, an increase of more than 35 percent from 2006 deliveries.

Also on Monday, Cessna announced it received an order for six Model 208B Grand Caravan turboprop aircraft from Susi Air of Indonesia, for delivery in 2009 and 2010. Susi currently operates eight Grand Caravans and has two more delivering in the first quarter of this year.

Susi Air transported more than 30,000 scheduled passengers on four routes with two aircraft in 2007 from its Medan base. The company plans for 100,000 passengers in 2008.

The company also announced an order from Chimes Aviation for 20 172 Skyhawk single-engine piston aircraft. The order includes 11 172R aircraft for immediate delivery and nine turbo-diesel 172 models for delivery later this year.

The aircraft will be used for flight training by the Chimes Aviation Academy. The flight school operates from Sagar Airport in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India, and plans to add a second location by October 2008.

FMI: www.cessna.com, www.susiair.com