Swiss business and military trainer aircraft maker Pilatus delivered 148 aircraft in 2023 – up from 133 the year before – and increased sales and operating profit, making a “superlative year” for the company.
The Stans-based firm on 20 February reported full-year revenue of Swfr1.48 billion ($1.68 billion), up 10% from the previous year. Profit rose 6% to Swfr240 million. The company booked orders worth Swfr1.51 billion, down 7% from 2023, bringing the value of its orderbook to Swfr2.33 billion.
“We invested a lot in 2023: In products, staff, growth, infrastructure, digitalisation – and always with unwavering focus on our customers’ needs,” says Hansueli Loosli, Pilatus’s chairman of the board.
Markus Bucher, the firm’s chief executive, adds, “These impressive results will provide the basis for a promising, successful, sustainable future.”
Pilatus delivered 101 single-engine turboprop PC-12s in 2023, 26% more than in the previous year, and 47 PC-24 light jets, up 18% year on year.
Almost half its sales – Swfr715 million – were from customers in the Americas, up from 42% in 2022. Sales to European customers declined to 30% from 35%, while sales to Asian customers remained flat at just over 12%. The company says one of its primary focus areas is ”tapping into new markets in Asia”.
Pilatus’s business aircraft revenue accounted for about 79% of its sales during 2023, while the remainder came from government deals.
“In order to increase own production capacity, Pilatus decided early in the year to proceed with a phased takeover of all approximately 230 employees and the machinery of RUAG Aerostructures Schweiz,” the company says. “In December 2023, Pilatus also acquired the sales and maintenance services of Aero Center Epps, a previously independent sales centre based in Atlanta.”
In May 2023, the company handed over its 2,000th PC-12, and in October launched a new version of its PC-24 twinjet, with range and weight improvements.
The outlook this year is “promising”, the company adds.
“Demand for the PC-12 and PC-24 remains high,” Pilatus says. ”Little stands in the way of the continuing success of these two Pilatus flagships.”
