Whilst we wait for Dassault to report its deliveries …
We might still be waiting for Dassault to let us know how many business jets it delivered in the first half of 2019, but with the rest of the manufacturers already reported, deliveries are already 6.7% higher than in the same period last year.
Dassault says that it will report its figures in early September. It also said that it is expecting to deliver 45 business jets for the full year.
Since 2015 Dassault has, on average, completed 40% of its annual deliveries in the first six months of the year. If that pattern is repeated this year, the 18 deliveries, added to total industry deliveries of 316, would imply a first half year-on-year increase of 12.8% over the 296 business jets delivered in the first half of 2018.
The increase in deliveries, as is normally the case, is largely due to deliveries of the first batch of new aircraft types.
Although that is just an assumption. Gulfstream which began deliveries of its G500 in 2018, does not give delivery guidance by type.
Instead, it groups large and midsize cabin deliveries together. In its large cabin category, which the G500 fits into, deliveries jumped by 35% from 37 to exactly 50.
For the first time, Bombardier has started doing the same, although instead of grouping together aircraft by their cabin size, it has done it by aircraft family.
This includes its new Global 7500, which is now mixed in with the rest of the Global family deliveries. Overall there were 24 Global family deliveries in the first half, a two-aircraft increase from 2018’s first-half deliveries.
The biggest decline was seen with Embraer’s Legacy 450, which dropped from five aircraft delivered in the first half of 2018, to just one in the first half of 2019. However, Embraer is in the process of replacing the Legacy 450 and the larger Legacy 500 with the Praetor 500 and Praetor 600.
The first of the larger Praetor 600s was delivered in the second quarter of 2019. The smaller Praetor 500 was given its type certificate by the Brazilian authorities a few weeks ago, so deliveries will begin soon.
Alongside the increase in large-cabin Gulfstream deliveries was a jump in Pilatus PC-24 deliveries. During the first half of 2018 Pilatus delivered three aircraft, but with the manufacturer slowly ramping up deliveries, it delivered 16 aircraft in the first half of 2019.
Another aircraft type that will see its initial batch of deliveries counted in the year-end data is the Gulfstream G600.
The aircraft received its production and type certificates from the FAA on the same day, at the end of June. Gulfstream announced that it had delivered the first G600 on August 8th.
