Editor’s Note: This presentation took place in early September 2024, three weeks prior to a strike by workers represented by the International Association of Machinists (IAM) in Wichita. That action may ultimately affect certain production, support, certification and operational timelines presented here.
In addition to a robust roster of safety, education and entertainment content, the annual CJP convention also provides the chance for Citation owners and pilots to hear about the latest developments at Textron Aviation from leaders in the company’s service and support organization.
Cody Honeyman, Textron Aviation’s regional sales director for preowned aircraft, noted the percentage of all Citations on the market has grown from 3.6 percent of the fleet in 2023 to 4.7 percent, with aircraft aged 10 years or less climbing from 2.7 to 2.9 percent.
While the preowned aircraft market has grown over the past year, demand for Citation jets remains healthy. Citation Mustang demand remains steady “at its waterline” of six percent of the fleet for sale, “which is where it’s the healthiest,” Honeyman said. Older CitationJets and newer Gen1 and Gen2 M2s also remain generally stable, with values appreciating slightly over 2023.
Compare that to the CJ2 market, which can be “a little unpredictable,” Honeyman noted. “Last three years, we’ve had drastically low inventory of under four percent. Some customers that would have upgraded over those years simply because they couldn’t find the right airplane. Last year I told everybody, ‘Now’s the time to upgrade’ and a few of you listened, because we’re now at nine percent inventory.”
As for the CJ3 and CJ3+, “we’re starting to see a little gradual increase in inventory,” he continued. “That’s what we’d expect. About 35 percent of aircraft for sale are CJ3+s, which mirrors the production. That’s healthy; that’s what we want to see.”
CJ3 values have depreciated slightly, but “that market is holding strong,” Honeyman added. “We’ve seen little to no change in values on those airplanes over the last 12 months.”
Contrast that with CJ4 inventories that have increased to around seven percent of the fleet available for sale. However, “this is probably one of the most in-demand and most desired airplanes that we see,” Honeyman said. “On the pre-owned side, transactions are very, very high. This airplane does move very quickly and transact quickly.
“We’re still in the seller’s market,” he concluded. “Is it moving more neutral than what it was last year? Yes, but historically, we are still at an all-time low.”
Scott Howell, vice president for North America service centers at Textron Aviation, pointed to the company’s impressive response rate when Citation owners need maintenance and repairs.
“We are the largest OEM network in the industry,” he said. “We have 20 company-owned service centers around the globe, over 80 mobile service units and go-teams available to support you in your time need. Our service organizations processed over two billion hours in shops. We’ve supported over 7000 AOG events and touched over 4000 unique serial numbers around the world. Needless to say, the team stays pretty busy!”
Howell also discussed a pair of tools to assist service center personnel. TAMI, or Textron Aviation Maintenance Intelligence, is a Microsoft-supported artificial intelligence program that allows AMTs to quickly access manuals and parts catalogs for specific repairs.
“TAMI goes through materials in our product support organization and quickly provides that information to our technicians, helping them quickly progress through the learning curve,” he added. “We’re very excited about what this technology is bringing to the shop floor, and we’re eager to expand it in other areas for business.”
Another tool, DOTS (for Data Optimized Task Sequencing) helps maintainers optimize their workflow by laying out steps for a given task in a logical and efficient manner. “DOTS considers all the inspection documents when you come in for a maintenance event and the associated tasks with it,” Howell said. “It also considers tasks that will likely generate squawks so we can sequence them earlier in the maintenance event, identify issues, get parts ordered and quickly get you going through the maintenance.”
Earlier this year, Textron Aviation also marked FAA approval of the company’s safety management system (SMS) at its 11 North American service centers. Howell also provided CJP2024 attendees with an early look at the EvoX upgrades package.
“This special designation will be reserved for exclusively for aircraft completing the full retrofit of upgrades of avionics, connectivity and interior,” he said. “This allows packaging opportunities to support better pricing and reduce downtimes when combined in one event.”
Preston Brunswick, director of ProAdvantage programs at Textron Aviation, rounded out the session with updates to the company’s maintenance programs, including a big improvement to warranty coverage.
“Your feedback is very important to us,” he said, “and one of the items we’ve worked on over the years is to take that feedback and implement it within parts distribution. In May of this year, we announced the change from a six-month warranty at time of installation to 12 months from the time of invoice.”
Brunswick also pointed to the company’s sustainability programs, including electricity at its new parts warehouse provided by wind power. Textron Aviation has also reduced trucking in the Wichita area by 40,000 miles and, when able, consolidates parts shipments into fewer boxes.
The company is also working to improve parts availability, with particular focus on landing gear actuators, environmental systems and windscreens. “We’re dealing with 63 percent increased volume of receipts since COVID that coincide with the increased flight hours,” Brunswick added. “Our [order] fill rates aren’t quite back to pre-COVID levels but we continue to improve. For our stock range items, 95 out of 100 orders, you’re going to get that part shipped out the same day.”