Cessna Ends the Century With Record Performance
26 January 2000
WICHITA, Kan.--Aircraft orders and deliveries of products continued on a solidly upward trend in 1999, bringing revenue and backlog numbers to record levels for Cessna Aircraft Company. Sales revenues of $2.2 Billion were the highest in the company's 72-year history. In addition, the current backlog totals 1,102 units worth more than $5.3 Billion.
Cessna's 1999 aircraft deliveries totaled 1,210 units: 224 Citations, 87 Caravans, and 899 single-engine piston models, an 11% increase over 1,077 aircraft delivered in 1998.
Sales activity for the Cessna Citation, Caravan and single-engine piston aircraft increased 22% over 1998, with an impressive 1,394 firm orders.
Cessna CEO Gary Hay said, "Cessna enjoyed yet another remarkable year thanks to the confidence of our customers and the hard work and dedication of our co-workers. A number of significant milestones were achieved and the customer demand for Cessna products is at its highest level in the company's history."
The Citation team celebrated another banner year with an industry record 224 deliveries and 353 aircraft orders, bringing the total Citation backlog to an unprecedented 650 units. Significant milestones in 1999 included the 3,000th Citation delivery, which established the Citation business jet fleet as the largest in the world by a full 50 percent over its nearest competitor. Cessna offers the most comprehensive line of business jets in the industry, including: the newly introduced Citation CJ1, Citation CJ2, Encore and Sovereign which join in the Citation family, the Bravo, Excel, Citation VII, and the world's fastest business jet, the Citation X.
Other notable Citation milestones include: the first flight and production ramp up of the new Citation CJ2; JAA certification of the Citation X; the fourth annual Citation Special Olympics Airlift involving 260 Citation operators; and delivery of the 50th Excel, the 100th Citation VII, the 100th Citation X, the 350th CitationJet, and the 500th Citation V/Ultra.
The Caravan continues to deliver strong customer acceptance and sales performance. Today there are more than 1,100 Caravans operating worldwide, which have logged more than 4 million flight hours, and delivered 99.8% dispatch reliability.
Since deliveries began three years ago, 1999 was the first year that all five single engine piston models were in full production, and was highlighted by the celebration of the 2,000th airplane delivered from the Independence facility. Market interest continues to significantly increase for new single-engine piston aircraft. Order placements increased nearly 60% over the previous year, and annual deliveries continue to grow steadily; up 14% over the 775 aircraft delivered in 1998.
The momentum of the Cessna Pilot Center program strengthened considerably with the introduction of the new Sallie Mae financing program for student pilots and announcement of a new computer based instruction program for instrument ratings scheduled to be released this spring. The Cessna Pilot Center network now includes 225 flight schools across North America, making it the largest flight training network in the world.
"In Cessna's history, 1999 was both a significant and memorable year, full of company firsts and important milestones," concluded Hay. "The tremendous accomplishments of the past year have given us the momentum to take our industry leadership to the next level. The twenty-first century promises to be full of opportunity for the entire Cessna team."
Cessna Aircraft Company is a subsidiary of Textron Inc., a $11.6 billion, global, multi-industry company with market-leading businesses in Aircraft, Automotive, Industrial and Finance.