Trainer Sales Drive Growth For Piper

Compared to last year, Piper Aircraft has had marked increases in sales, deliveries and revenue during the second quarter of 2018, the company announced at AirVenture 2018. The growth is strongly driven by trainer sales, with Piper reporting a 126 percent increase over a similar time period last year. The company says its order backlog in both single- and multi-engine trainers extends into Fall 2019.

Piper delivered a total of 34 trainers in Q2 of 2018. Seminole deliveries saw the most growth with 150 percent more than in 2017 and the company says that it's selling more of the twin-engine trainers than it has in at least 15 years. Arrow and Archer deliveries showed a combined growth of 85 percent for Q2. Piper says it is on track to deliver more than 100 PA-28s in 2018. According to the company, "the increase in demand for Piper trainers can be directly attributed to the looming pilot shortage and the resulting demand for pilots."

Piper also delivered 11 percent more M-Class aircraft. Overall, the company's Q2 2018 aircraft revenue came in at $62.3 million on 53 deliveries versus $52.1 million on 32 aircraft deliveries in Q2 2017. So far, Piper has delivered 84 aircraft this year compared to the 57 it had delivered at this time last year.