A double-digit 14.5% year-over-year increase in airplane shipments in the first quarter and a 10.5% rise in their combined values makes it appear the general aviation industry is on fire. However, a more detailed view reveals pockets of strength and weakness.
Beginning with the smallest, least expensive piston airplanes, deliveries rose a remarkable 24% from 200 units to 248. Half, or 24 units of this increase, came from Piper Aircraft primarily from trainer sales while another 13 came fromAviation's piston offerings. It will be interesting to see Textron's resolve in keeping the expensive, legacy Beechcraft Bonanza and Baron piston line in production which only saw 2 units delivered in Q1 2018 and just 1 in 2019.
In the business jet arena, deliveries increased 9 units from 132 to 141 for a gain of 6.8% over the same period last year, proving that a large percentage increase of a small number is still a small number. Textron Aviation's Cessna unit saw a respectable 22% bump in jet deliveries across the board of its product offerings.
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