"The general aviation market has slowed; new orders
have fallen off considerably; many existing orders have been
terminated and used inventory has increased dramatically. Simply
put, consumer demand for aircraft and services has declined
precipitously."
Source: Hawker Beechcraft CEO Jim Schuster, in
a memo to workers. We're only a week into the New Year, and already
Cessna and Hawker Beech have further scaled back production
schedules, and have given notice of still more impending layoffs to
their manufacturing workforces.