The FTO business is going very poor
That’s my current impression as well. Several major FTO’s (some with DA42 fleets) have been scaling down significantly here in South East Asia the past year. Things are not looking good.
Another reason for the low DA42 production numbers is the (temporary?) end of DA42 production at Diamond in Canada – US (the biggest market) needs to imports all DA42s from Austria. And then of course the usual chestnuts: People being wary of DA42s since the Thielert disaster, the high cost of a new DA42-VI, and lastly the multi requirement.
Anyway, as have already been said, the overall piston production numbers are peanuts. I’m not even sure it qualifies as an actual “business”, but rather a playground for irrational enthusiasts! 
People being wary of DA42s
I think that Diamond got a killer with the DA42-VI, that is a very good aircraft and I believe it will show relatively good sales. The DA42’s attractiveness outside the FTO business was very limited until the DA42-VI which is a great travel machine.
Graph of Cirrus deliveries, from the GAMA data…
The effects of the financial meltdown are quite apparent.
Interesting how few SR20s are being produced. If it wasn’t for the training fleets, who knows – Cirrus might just focus on the SR22x instead.
I think that Diamond got a killer with the DA42-VI,
Best airplane I ever had – I seriously couldn’t be any happier. Of course a DA42 is not for everybody. Clocked 2400nm last weekend on a return trip to Northern Thailand – piece of cake w/weather radar, deice, VNAV etc, I used it all. And those quiet twin engines, bliss. Having previously flown an avgas DA40, I can’t begin to tell how liberating it is to fly with Jet A.
In the GAMA numbers, the biggest star of 2013 is probably the Phenom 300. That one is really selling like hot cakes. (Netjets purchase?)
Peter… just the SR22s for you:
The effects of the financial meltdown are quite apparent.
It’s hard to think of a manufacturing business which could withstand that degree of demand meltdown. You will have to fire most of the good workers too.
Are Cirrus offering a refurbishment package? For example Socata will fit a G1000 into a TBM700 (for $400k… not kidding).
DA42 numbers are a bit skewed, they do not include the military (observation) deliveries. Not in the hundreds of course..
The effects of the financial meltdown are quite apparent.
Which financial meltdown? Today, income and savings are above pre-crisis values in a lot of countries and the interest rates are so low that there is less reason to not buy an aircraft than ever before. Car sales in the US have surpassed pre-crisis numbers. The reasons for the decline are much deeper than the crisis.
Which financial meltdown?
You didn’t spend the last few years in some cave in Afghanistan, did you, Achim?
Today, income and savings are above pre-crisis values in a lot of countries and the interest rates are so low that there is less reason to not buy an aircraft than ever before.
Perhaps – but will the banks extend credit to you? Herein lies the rub, not in the level of interest rates.
The reasons for the decline are much deeper than the crisis.
That I would would broadly agree with, but you cannot deny the correlation between the financial meltdown of 2008 and the drop in aircraft sales. Other factors are probably that the Baby Boomers are getting a bit on in years (medical….), that their savings have taken a huge hit (from which they are now recovering – but these people have also aged six years since), a generally more risk-averse attitude post-crisis and the over-proliferation of regulations which take a lot of the joy out of flying, at least in Europe.
You didn’t spend the last few years in some cave in Afghanistan, did you, Achim?
Somewhere similar I guess then. I said “a lot of countries” and not all. The US are going strong as the biggest economy and several European economies, too.
Perhaps – but will the banks extend credit to you? Herein lies the rub, not in the level of interest rates.
Car sales in the US are above pre crisis numbers. That means both loaning and consumer solvency are going strong. Americans didn’t suddenly start using their own money for buying cars. Nothing fundamentally different from tossing your old car and buying a new one (i.e. spending money you don’t really have to) and buying an aircraft.
The main reason for the decline in my opinion is that people are losing interest in flying. There are more attractive ways to spend your spare time like Facebook etc. 30 years ago there wasn’t much to do with 2 TV channels, no internet so people would go to the airfield and hang out there. There weren’t Easyjet flights for 19 € either taking to you everywhere you can imagine.
