Cirrus, Daher and Honda Record Robust 2017 Sales

The year 2017 closed with companies evaluating their successes and failures. In a year that saw only a slight increase in the total number of airplanes delivered, Cirrus and Daher boasted the strongest numbers since the market crashed about a decade ago, while Honda Aircraft boasted producing the best-selling light jet in the market.

With the ramp-up in deliveries of the recently certified Vision SF50 jet, Duluth, Minnesota-based Cirrus had a great year, both on the jet side and on the piston side. The company delivered 22 Vision Jets in 2017 along with 355 SR20s, SR22s and SR22Ts combined, an increase of nearly 12 percent over the previous year for the piston models. Cirrus now owns nearly 30 percent of the piston airplane market share and delivered dozens more pistons than Textron Aircraft, which combines the models of former light airplane behemoths Cessna and Beechcraft.

While this is a promising trend for Cirrus, the number is a far cry from the 710 SR-series airplanes that Cirrus delivered in 2007. Cirrus expects to deliver its 7,000th SR-series airplane in April.

Daher has also been on a steady rise in the past few years with the introduction of its latest offerings: the TBM 910 and 930. The company delivered 57 TBMs, nearly catching up with the 60 airplanes that flew away from the factory in Tarbes, France, in 2008.

Honda Aircraft noted that the HondaJet was the most delivered jet in its category last year, with 43 delivered to customers in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.