LUBOMIR SEDLAK / PRAGUE
Ibis Aerospace has sold nine Ae270 single-engined business aircraft worth $20 million to Florida, USA-based distributor East Coast Jet Center. The first aircraft will be delivered in 2004, followed by four each in 2005 and 2006.
"As a result, we have covered the very last part of the USA, namely the south east, and now have contracts with wholesalers all over North America," says Ibis president Jirí Fidransky.
The company has formed a global network of 10 distributors (six in the USA and one each in Australia, Canada, Germany, and South Africa), which covers 75-80% of the expected market. "The 10 have for the years 2004-6 ordered 76 Ae270s and exercised options for another six," says Fidransky.
Ibis aims to sell 15 aircraft next year, 35 in 2005 and 45 annually after that. "At present, our marketing activities focus on both western and eastern Europe, but also on the Far East," says Fidransky.
Ibis Aerospace, a joint venture between Czech aircraft manufacturer Aero Vodochody and Taiwan's Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation, began development of the single-turboprop multirole aircraft, which seats up to nine passengers, in the early 1990s.
Source: Flight International