Shipments Declined In All Three Areas, Billings Ticked Up, GAMA Sees Strong Fundamentals

GAMA's State of the Industry report has some bad news and some good news in its 2011 worldwide shipments and billings figures released Wednesday for general aviation airplanes.

GAMA’s 2012 Chairman Caroline Daniels (pictured), chairman and CEO of ATP, said in a news conference releasing the data that industry shipments were relatively flat in 2011 although total billings were up a fraction of a percent. At year’s end, worldwide shipments of general aviation airplanes totaled 1,865 units, as compared to 1,932 airplanes delivered in 2010. This represents a 3.5 percent decline. Worldwide general aviation billings grew by 0.4 percent in 2011 to $19.1 billion as compared to the previous year.
 
The piston airplane segment shipped a total of 860 units in 2011, compared to 873 units in 2010, a 1.5 percent decline. The turboprop sector was down 2.4 percent, shipping 324 units in 2011, compared to 332 units the previous year. The business jet sector declined 6.3 percent with 681 airplanes shipped, compared to 727 jets in 2010.

“Shipments declined in all three industry segments from the previous year, but the declines reached single digits which indicate general aviation is reaching the trough in this cycle,” said Daniels. “The large-cabin, long-range business jet category remained sound and mid-size business jets saw growth. This resulted in a small uptick in billings for 2011.”
 
“A majority of the market fundamentals are moving in the right direction. Corporate profits remain at record high levels, the used market and flight activity made year over year improvements, and emerging markets are driving new sales,” continued Daniels. “Like last year, our greatest concern remains the lack of financing. Latent demand in the market exists and an ease in the credit markets could help boost our industry into positive growth once again.” 

Hawker Beechcraft Corporation’s (HBC) fourth quarter data will be available when their 10K is filed on or about March 31, 2012. The shipment and billings figures in this report do not include HBC’s 2010 or 2011 fourth quarter numbers.
 
At the end of 2011, GAMA expanded its membership to include rotorcraft manufacturers. The association now represents every sector of the general aviation manufacturing industry. Shipment and billings data for rotorcraft will be reported on a quarterly basis starting with the first quarter of 2012.

FMI: www.gama.aero