Cessna is laying off an additional 2,300 people, extending its summer shutdown, suspending its Citation Columbus program and closing its Bend, Ore., plant, the company said today.
The $27 million Columbus design was billed as the largest, fastest longest-range, most comfortable and most advanced Citation in history.
It was supposed to be ready in 2014 and state and local governments in Kansas had allotted millions in incentives to entice Cessna to build the production plant in the state.
With oil skirting $130 a barrel and demand for business-class travel slowing, it’s not the best time to launch an airline .
However, Forbes reports that Peter Leiman and Cameron Ogden, two Harvard Business School graduates are launching the new private jet taxi service, Blink, on June 12.
Blink’s current flight plans take you through much of Western Europe and the the tickets are up to 25% more expensive than regular business-class travel for seats on their four-seater Cessna Citation Mustang.
Cirrus Design’s The Jet is a next-generation aircraft planned as a transition from the Cirrus SR22.
The jet is not intended to compete with very light jets like the Eclipse 500 and the Cessna Citation Mustang. It is intended for the personal use market and will be comparable to the Diamond Aircraft Industries D-Jet. It will have a parachute, as all Cirrus have, and will be made of a composite material. Certification expected in the next few years.
Cirrus is currently taking $100,000 deposits for the jet. Initially, as a public relations exercise, the company gave deposit holders a drawing of the jet in the form of a jigsaw puzzle, one piece at a time. On June 28, the entire puzzle was completed, and the Cirrus Jet configuration was unveiled.
The Jet will seat seven people. The cockpit will have two seats, and the second row will have two seats as will the third row. There will be a seat that can slide between the second and third row. The Jet will have two doors, and the parachute will be located in the nose.
Lufthansa has placed orders for seven executive jets from Cessna, the US business aircraft maker, in its first step towards building its own fleet of nine corporate jets operating in the region of Europe and Russia.
The German flag carrier is set to be the first European airline to develop its own fleet of business jets.
Private aviation has enjoyed an unprecedented global boom during the past three years, as corporate executives and wealthy individuals have sought to avoid the increasing hassle, inconvenience and delays of flying through congested hub airports and to use business jets to increase executive productivity.
Several other European airlines have considered entering the corporate jet market, including KLM, the Dutch subsidiary of Air France-KLM, which has recently investigated the fledgling market for air taxi jet operations with four-seat very light jets.
BJETS, a new private jet operator in Asia, announced plans to buy a fleet of 40 Cessna and Hawker jets to provide aviation services to corporations and high net-worth individuals in Asia.
Deliveries will take place over a period of five years, and BJETS has options for 10 more Hawker jets, bringing the company’s total investments to over US$600 million.
The company plans to begin operations in May 2008, operating out of Singapore’s Selatar Airport, and India’s new Hyderabad International Airport.
