Asian Market Makes Up For Expected US Slump

Demand for Bell Helicopter and Cessna Aircraft Company products continues to be strong, with both companies reporting solid order intake so far for new aircraft in 2008.

Textron, parent company to both aircraft makers, previously announced strong results from the Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition Forum in Hong Kong, the Singapore Airshow and Heli-Expo in Houston, with 84 purchase orders for helicopters and 22 jet orders.

"Results from these three February shows are indicative of the general strength we continue to see in global aircraft markets," said Lewis B. Campbell, Textron chairman, president and CEO.

Speaking at Tuesday's JP Morgan Aviation and Transportation Conference in New York City, Jack Pelton, Cessna chairman, president and CEO remarked, "The order environment for business jets continues to be robust. Based on strong order activity to-date, we are expecting a very strong new order book in the first quarter and remain confident that we will record over 570 business jet orders this year."

Dick Millman, president and CEO of Bell Helicopter recently stated, "Bell continues to see strong world-wide demand across our product line and we believe this demand will create another robust sales year for us."

FMI: www.cessna.com, www.bellhelicopter.com