Have we hit bottom yet ???

Aviator · Joined: Nov 05, 2002 Posts: 37 Location: USA

Maybe Next Year, Hopes New Piper...
New Piper and Raytheon joined the chorus of GA companies repeating the mantra of missed projections and staff layoffs this week. At New Piper, they've already cut pre-9/11 staff levels by a third to about 1,000 employees and no further cuts are anticipated ... except in revenue. New Piper had hoped to build 331 airplanes this year but will only make 300. Of those, only 213 are sold. Last year, the company sold 444 planes. "We have absolutely been hit hard," company spokesman Mark Miller told The Palm Beach Post. "This continued decline in the economy ... has been unremitting." Miller said the earliest he expects improvement is the second quarter of next year and the lean, efficient company should be well-positioned to exploit it. "Our whole focus is to be prepared once the economy rebounds." Raytheon doesn't appear to share that optimism. It's shedding another 220 workers in Wichita and projecting even fewer aircraft deliveries next year. It's expecting to build 339 planes in 2003, down from 356 this year. Hardest hit is its commuter turboprop, the Beech 1900D. Only one will be built next year compared to 12 this year.

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