Cirrus Aircraft News

Even with the pressure on the current general aviation new aircraft market, Cirrus Aircraft saw significant share growth on a substantial rise in airplane deliveries in the second quarter versus the first quarter. 

“While the overall market remains very challenging and is at significantly contracted levels versus a year ago, we saw several bright spots in the second quarter GAMA delivery data” said Todd Simmons, Vice President of Marketing at Cirrus. “We have made substantial product improvements across our product line - SR20, SR22 and TURBO - in just the last 12 months. With this latest industry delivery information, the market is clearly showing its preference for new Cirrus Aircraft.”

Read the entire release here.

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.

In a communication to all employees, Cirrus Aircraft announced today it is increasing its production rate to six (6) aircraft per week starting immediately. The increased rate follows nearly six (6) months of significantly reduced production rates that averaged approximately two (2) to three (3) fewer units per week than the new 6X/week rate.

We continue to see very encouraging trends in sales activities and interest from sales prospects domestically and around the world. The introduction of the new model year lineup in early January - including FIKI; Cirrus Perspective by Garmin across the line; X-Edition and more - have us very well positioned in the market place. Clearly, this is an upward move and is indicative of a stronger bias toward growth in aircraft orders. At the same time, targeted production output will continue to be determined on a month-to-month basis as this flexibility allows us to favorably position the organization to meet market fluctuations.

At this time, the increased rate will result in minimal impact to direct labor headcount, due in large part to recent significant efficiency gains achieved as a result of ongoing lean production initiatives. Cirrus Aircraft employees, customers, shareholders and partners have worked closely together to manage our business in spite of some very stiff headwinds recently, and though we remain in a very challenging environment, our hope is that this new rate is the first step and initial indicator of what will become a more substantial trend into the second half of the year and beyond.