Textron among jet firms adding models

PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island-based Textron Inc.’s Cessna Aircraft and other business-jet builders are adding new models as the industry recovers from an order slump that forced output cuts of more than 40 percent, Bloomberg News said last week.
Cessna announced the $4.2 million Citation M2 on Sept. 26 and the $14.9 million Citation Latitude last week at the National Business Aviation Association conference in Las Vegas.
“Barring any major shifts in the world activities, we’ll see a slight uptick in our deliveries” this year, Cessna’s new president, Scott Ernest, said in an interview with Bloomberg. He declined to give a more specific forecast.
Worldwide business-jet sales may rise next year because of emerging-market demand and introduction of longer-range models, components-maker Honeywell Inc. said in its annual corporate-jet forecast before the convention. Deliveries will probably fall this year, weighed down by the U.S. economy, it said.
The slump in business-jet orders had forced plane makers to curtail new models and cut staff. Cessna canceled development of the Columbus jet in 2009 amid the recession and fired more than half its staff.
Textron CEO Scott Donnelly is molding units together, including Cessna and Bell helicopters, to “harness the energy across all the businesses,” Ernest said. Cessna has started joint service centers with Bell in Prague and Singapore and will continue to leverage the companywide resources for sales offices globally, he said. &#8226

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