FlightSafety To Acquire 20 Warrior, 6 Archer Aircraft

Piper announced that it had signed a deal with Flight Safety for 26 airplanes at a news conference held at noon Monday at AirVenture.

Piper CEO Simon Caldecott said that he had inked the deal about 30 minutes before their planned news conference. "26 airplanes on the first day, that's got to be something of a record," Caldecott said.

The deal includes firm orders for 20 Warriors and six Arrows with deliveries to begin in the 3rd quarter of this year. This initial order for the trainer aircraft is part of a fleet replenishment initiative agreement between the two companies. FlightSafety has an option to acquire 20 additional Piper Warrior airplanes in 2016.

But Caldecott also said that the deal would not affect the layoffs of about 150 people from Piper's Vero Beach (FL) headquarters announced last week. Caldecott said that while the agreement had just been signed, it had been in the works for some time, and had been accounted for in the company's planned production. He did say that there were other potential deals in the works that, if they come to fruition, might reduce the number of layoffs.

(Staff Image)

FMI: www.piper.com. www.flightsafety.com