Cirrus Aircraft News

This past weekend COPA and Cirrus Aircraft welcomed our owners back to Duluth for the seventh edition of the annual "Migration". More than 100 Cirrus aircraft and over 300 registered attendees made the return trip. As seems to be the case every year, this year's event eclipsed expectations in terms of attendance, the number and quality of forum presentations and excitement.  The kick-off party, sponsored by Garmin and Cirrus Aircraft, was highlighted by a Vision Jet fly-by that set the tone for the whole weekend.

In addition to all the information coming out of the forums and trade show presentations, Cirrus also held a meeting of Vision Jet Deposit Holders to bring future clients up to speed on all development activities.  Cirrus continues to make significant progress on the program.  We have basically completed flight testing of the prototype, largely defined the loft for both the wing and the fuselage which determines the final shape of those items, and begun the detailed design phase which will take the next 18-21 months. 

The Vision Jet program remains a key strategic initiative for Cirrus and is the central component of the Company's long-term growth strategy.  Cirrus is devoting the vast majority of its product development resources to complete this program in a timely fashion.  While the program is currently funded through internally-generated cash flows, we continue to look outside Cirrus for investments that might help accelerate the product to market. 

Brent Wouters, Cirrus Aircraft President and CEO commented "Recently, Alan Klapmeier approached Cirrus about putting together a group of investors to potentially acquire a major interest in the Vision program, under his leadership, and Cirrus has agreed to cooperate with Alan as he investigates this possibility.  The Company has several such potential avenues for external capital to fund the program at a faster rate, and some of the interested parties have submitted proposals to Cirrus for consideration. While Alan publicly announced his intentions, we would note that at this juncture there has been no formal proposal, no specific offer and we are not currently involved in negotiations toward such a deal."

Wouters concluded, "While the Vision program justifiably gets a lot of media attention, it is important to see its development in the context of the entire company's recent progress.  We just announced increased piston production to eight (8) aircraft per week as we see signals of stronger demand both domestically and internationally.  That combined with some of the organizational decisions we made last year to better position the company to prosper in more challenging economic times have us very encouraged as we look ahead to the second half of the year."

Cirrus' capable network of Authorized Service Centers now consists of 187 centers in 28 countries.

Cirrus is pleased to welcome our newest Service Centers:

• Above View Aviation, St. George, UT
• Aeromecanica Ltda, Curitiba, Brazil
• Aerotecnica, Guatemala City, Guatemala
• Air Alpha Maintenance, Odense, Denmark
• Ayla Aviation Academy, Aqaba, Jordan
• Cirrus Aviation Korea, Seoul, Korea
• Eastern Iowa Avionics, Cedar Rapids, IA
• Empire Flight Academy, Farmingdale, NY
• McCreery Aviation Co. Inc., McAllen, TX
• Premier Aviation, Tucson, AZ
• Quick Manutencao De Aero Ltda., Goiania, Brazil
• Silverstar Maintenance Services Ltd., Blackpool, UK
• Tecnicos Aereos Cimaut, C.A., Charallave, Venezuela

"Cirrus is excited about expanding our network of service centers to meet our growing Cirrus aircraft owner base," said Gary Poelma, Cirrus Executive Director of Customer Support.  To find the Cirrus Authorized Service Center nearest you, please visit our INTERACTIVE SITE.

Harper's Bazaar China, June 2009. [Chinese]

Read about two inspiring Chinese women realizing their dream of flight and their love for Cirrus aircraft.

Miao Pu is a famous Chinese movie star who owns a Cirrus SR22 customized with her personal logo.  Miao Pu has dreamed of flying since she was 12 years old riding her bicycle to the airport.  As the airplanes flew close over her head, she closed her eyes, spread her arms, and was enveloped by the sound of the engines.  Now as a pilot, she watches children near a primary school listen to her airplane with their arms spread as she flies overhead.  She wishes to inspire those little girls to dream of flying too.

Chen Yan was the first female private pilot in China.  She began to fly after being told by her husband, who served in the Air Force, and her son that flying was not only for men.  Chen Yan and her husband operate the Blue Angel coffee shop which is filled with airplane models, instruments and pictures of airplanes.  They dream of owning a Cirrus someday.

FULL ARTICLE [in Chinese]

Cirrus Aircraft notified its employees of continued strong demand for its entire product line and of the associated increase in its new aircraft production rate to eight (8) aircraft per week. Increased staffing requirements were communicated precipitating upcoming callbacks of some previously furloughed employees at both its Duluth, MN and Grand Forks, ND production facilities. Today's announcement follows a similar communication of late April '09 when new aircraft production was increased to six (6) aircraft per week, yet staffing increases were not required at that time. 

Several indicators support the company's positive outlook. In contrast to other reported general aviation industry trends, Cirrus Aircraft has seen consistent growth in new aircraft orders over the past 120 days, with stronger order rates consistently outpacing production output over that timeframe. Equally notable are the sources of the new orders. Domestic and international retail demand, as well as both U.S. and global institutional demand, are each playing a contributory role. Cirrus Certified™, its pre-owned aircraft sales division, is seeing similar increased sales activity with used aircraft inventory levels showing increasing signs of stabilization. 

Pat Waddick, Executive Vice President of Operations, communicated the news to all Cirrus employees. "We are extremely pleased with continuing stronger sales trends that began in the first quarter. Unlike the recent change to six (6) aircraft per week, today's change to eight (8) per week will take somewhat longer to implement due to required staffing increases and the commensurate impact on vendor lead times. We recognize the good news this represents to many furloughed members of the Cirrus family and we are moving as quickly as possible to determine the needed skill sets and to call those folks back to work."     

Brent Wouters, President and CEO, noted the company's progress while maintaining a very disciplined and focused approach. "All Cirrus Aircraft partners - our customers, our employees, our vendors, and our ownership team - can take a measure of pride in these early results of our diligence and cooperation. The marketplace is responding to and validating the strength of our product line and the high quality and value inherent in our latest models. The recently announced 'Flight Into Known Icing' certification for SR22 and TURBO models and Cirrus Perspective by Garmin™ integrated avionics suites across the product lineup are just two of the newer features that are catalyzing demand."   

Wouters continued, "At the same time, much hard work remains through this year and into next as we continue to navigate through a very challenging period. While today's news is certainly reason for optimism and clearly another step in the right direction, we will maintain our determined approach and continue to make any adjustments necessary as quickly and efficiently as possible."   

Cirrus Aircraft expects that the new production rate will positively affect in excess of fifty (50) furloughed employees across all facilities in coming weeks.