Yesterday, the General Aviation Manufacturer’s Association (GAMA) released its first quarter data for aircraft shipments. The early 2017 numbers are a mixed bag of growth and decline. So, kind of the same place the industry was at the end of 2016. The good news is, there was growth in some sectors, which is often not the case in the first quarter. Many customers take delivery of their airplanes in the last quarter of the year in order to grab a last minute tax deduction for pennies on the dollar. So any kind of good news in Q1 is reason for some optimism.
In terms of real numbers, both piston and bizjet shipments are up by more than 6% with 203 piston planes shipped, compared to 191 in the first quarter of 2016. Turboprops were down (101 shipped in Q1 2017 compared to 109 in the first quarter of last year). Total airplane billings, which is strongly driven by bizjet activity, was $3.6 billion, and the actual number of airplanes shipped, 434, was up by almost 3%.
Learn more at GAMA.
