Forecast International, Inc., has released its projections for the future of business jet production. The company is a leading provider of market intelligence and analysis in the areas of aerospace, defense, power systems and military electronics and works in conjunction with Aviation Week. While acknowledging that the business jet market is still growing, it predicts that it is nearing its peak and that a decline may indeed be on the horizon. In its new study entitled "The Market for Business Jet Aircraft," the study reports that it "expects annual business jet production to reach nearly 1,400 units in 2008, and exceed 1,600 units in 2009. However, the company projects that annual production will then suffer a three-year decline, dropping to a level of 1,515 units by 2012. Growth is expected to resume in 2013, with yearly production exceeding 1,700 units by 2017, the final year of the time period covered by the study. Overall, Forecast International projects that 15,936 business jets, worth an estimated $223 billion, will be produced from 2008 through 2017." Here's what else it says:
With respect to the number of VLJs in the 15,936 production total number from 2008 to 2017, the press release states: "This total includes some 5,600 Very Light Jets (VLJ). The VLJ sector is expected to be a very dynamic portion of the market. VLJs are the smallest aircraft on the business jet market, and include such models as the Eclipse 500 and the Diamond D-JET."
The press release acknowledges that "[a]lso helping to fuel business jet sales will be continuing dissatisfaction with scheduled airline travel. . . ."
There are a number of VLJ aircraft that are on the horizon of enterring the US market and being utilized by air taxi companies including the Cirrus Vision, the PiperJet (above) and a few others. Several others are already performing very well in Europe also like the Cessna Citation Mustang being used by Blink.
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