Business jet deliveries up 3.8% in 2018

The first deliveries of a new aircraft type and the ramp-up of deliveries of a personal jet helped the industry increase its deliveries by 3.8% in 2018.

Overall the industry delivered a total of 703 aircraft in 2018, up 26 aircraft on the 677 it delivered in 2017.

The year started with Pilatus delivering the first of its new PC-24 ‘super versatile jet’ to launch customer PlaneSense in the US. Following the first delivery, Pilatus delivered a total of 18 aircraft before the end of the year.

But it was a jumpe in deliveries of the Cirrus SF50 personal jet that made the major difference, with an increase from 22 deliveries in 2017 to 63 deliveries in 2018.

Outside of Cirrus and Pilatus, Textron and Gulfstream were the only manufacturers that increased their deliveries. Textron delivered eight more aircraft than it did the previous year, whilst Gulfstream managed to deliver one more.

Gulfstream had planned to deliver at least one of its new G600 business jets before the end of the year, however final certification was held up by the partial US government shutdown, pushing the first delivery into this year.

Outside of corporate airliner manufacturers Airbus and Boeing, Embraer saw the biggest decline in deliveries, dropping by 16.5%. Embraer was followed very closely by Dassault, which delivered 16.3% fewer aircraft in 2018 than the previous year.

Deliveries by aircraft categories favoured Very Light Jets, where the 145 aircraft delivered in 2018 was up by 16 aircraft over the 129 aircraft delivered in 2017. Long-range business jets followed closely with 134 deliveries, although that was one aircraft fewer than the previous year.

The biggest increase in aircraft deliveries came in the midsize category, which rose by 19 aircraft from 109 in 2017 to 128 last year.

The steepest decline was with large-cabin aircraft, which dropped by nine aircraft, from 77 to 68.
Outside of the Cirrus SF50 and Pilatus PC-24, the CJ3+ and CJ4 saw the biggest increases in deliveries by aircraft type.

The CJ3+ saw a double-digit increase of 11 aircraft, whilst the CJ4 saw an additional six deliveries.

The SF50 took the top spot as the most-delivered aircraft through the year, with a total of 63 deliveries. The Challenger 350 came a close second, with 60.

Only two other aircraft types saw more than 50 deliveries across the year, with the Citation Latitude delivering 57 and the Phenom 300 delivering 53 aircraft.

Aside from the initial Pilatus PC-24 delivery, the year was notable for the first delivery of the Global 7500. Bombardier delivered the first aircraft to Stonebriar Commercial in December.