Sat, May 09, 2015
Just When You Thought Things Were Going To Get Better... They Don't
The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) has published first quarter 2015 aircraft shipment results. The general aviation industry shipped 678 aircraft in the first three months of the year for a total value of $5.3 billion -- a stunning disappointment.
"The first-quarter numbers show that, while our industry has been gaining traction over the past few years, we face some renewed headwinds in several regions of the world, including Asia, parts of Europe, and Latin America," said GAMA President and CEO Pete Bunce.
"Our industry is focused on regaining momentum, but we need the U.S. Congress to be a strong partner and reauthorize the Export-Import Bank before the June 30 deadline. It is time to stop playing political games with industry jobs. Congress needs to move ahead and pass reauthorization quickly to ensure a level global playing field and provide needed stability in a difficult market."
Total airplane shipments declined from 520 during first quarter 2014 to 441 in first quarter 2015. Airplane billings were down 12.6 percent from last year to $4.5 billion. Rotorcraft shipments declined by 18.3 percent to 188 aircraft delivered in first quarter 2015 while billings were down 17.9 percent to $0.8 billion.
While a number of manufacturers actually showed some slight improvement, or at least held their own, a few showed serious declines. In particular, Cirrus, who has touting their real/imagined strengths while holding their hands out for various deals from their home base in Duluth, another in Grand Forks, and a questionable new project in Knoxville (which really makes ANN wonder who in Knoxville's political spectrum checked out Cirrus -- and its bad rep -- before attempting to get their business -- an issue we predict they will come to regret), showed serious pullback from previous quarters.
FIRST QUARTER SHIPMENTS OF AIRPLANES MANUFACTURED WORLDWIDE
| Classification |
2014 |
2015 |
CHANGE |
| Piston |
241 |
193 |
-19.9% |
| Turboprops |
125 |
115 |
-08.0% |
| Business Jets |
154 |
133 |
-13.6% |
| Total Shipments |
520 |
441 |
-15.2% |
| Total Billings |
$5.2B |
$4.5B |
-12.6% |
FIRST QUARTER SHIPMENTS OF ROTORCRAFT MANUFACTURED WORLDWIDE
| Classification |
2014 |
2015 |
CHANGE |
| Piston |
74 |
52 |
-29.7% |
| Turbine |
156 |
136 |
-12.8% |
| Total Shipments |
230 |
188 |
-18.3% |
| Total Billings |
$1.0B |
$0.8B |
-17.9% |
ANN is looking over the figures just released and will have some additional analysis shortly.
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