GAMA: Piston planes give Cessna, industry Q2 lift

General aviation manufacturers delivered more planes in the second quarter of 2017 than the same period a year ago, an industry trade group reported on Tuesday.

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association’s aircraft shipment report showed the industry delivered 561 airplanes in the three-month quarter ended June 30. That’s a little more than a 2 percent increase from the 548 fixed-wing aircraft the industry delivered in the second quarter of 2017.

Piston aircraft such as those made at Textron Aviation’s Cessna plant in Independence and at its East Campus Beechcraft plant in Wichita led all shipments for the quarter at a total of 265 airplanes. That was up 5 percent from the 252 airplanes shipped in the same period last year.

Turboprops were the second highest category of aircraft delivered, at 131, compared with 126 in the second quarter of 2016.

Shipments of business jets like those made at Textron Aviation’s West Campus and at Bombardier Learjet were down nearly 3 percent: 165 jets in the second quarter of 2017 compared with 170 last year.

“Results for the second quarter of this year are very much like the first — mixed, with some bright spots,” GAMA President and CEO Pete Bunce said in a news release Tuesday. “We hope rule rewrites in the U.S. and Europe, reorganization of the FAA certification directorate, and ongoing certification and regulatory reform efforts in Congress … will spur higher numbers in future quarters this year and the next.”

Shipment numbers for Textron Aviation and Bombardier were consistent with those previously reported by the companies in their quarterly earnings reports last month.

What the GAMA report did show is that Textron Aviation delivered 63 Cessna and Beechcraft piston airplanes in the second quarter of 2017, a 37 percent increase from the second quarter of 2016. The company does not include its piston aircraft deliveries in its quarterly earnings reports.

The report also showed that in addition to lower King Air turboprop deliveries, Textron Aviation also delivered fewer Cessna Caravan and Grand Caravan single-engine turboprops: 14 compared with 20 in the second quarter of 2016. Textron Aviation also doesn’t report Caravan deliveries with its earnings results.

This story was originally published August 15, 2017 at 2:23 PM with the headline "GAMA: Piston planes give Cessna, industry Q2 lift."