New blood to save GA

By Kate Sarsfield in London

For light-aircraft manufacturers, Europe is a conundrum. Historically, the continent represents the largest market for general aviation outside North America, with a fleet of around 30,000 aircraft, and has been fertile ground for the airframers for decades. “The 1970s and early 1980s were the heyday for light aircraft worldwide and Europe was no exception, with sales hitting record levels,” says Wilfried Otto, chairman of New Piper’s European distributor. US manufacturers Piper and Cessna dominate the European fleet with their all-metal aircraft designs holding market shares of around 25% and 30%, respectively. Germany and the UK are home to the largest concentration of aircraft, representing half the total European fleet, and have led the charge for new and upgraded models for over two decades, providing significant sales for the manufacturers.

Since the late 1990s, the easy pickings have become scarcer and new aircraft sales in Europe have slowed, despite the enlargement of the European Union to 25 countries compared with 12 in the early 1980s. While the manufacturers’ appetite for new sales is as strong as ever, they are faced with the battle of building strong and sustainable orderbooks in the face of growing political, social and economic challenges, notably in the increasingly cynical markets of western Europe. “From the late 1980s to around 1995 sales of new Piper aircraft declined in Europe, triggered by the rising fuel prices, navigation charges, the increase in cheap airline travel and tougher regulations imposed on private flyers,” Otto says.

He also says the face of general aviation in Europe is changing. “There has been a decline in the numbers of middle class [pilots], our typical buyer of piston aircraft,” he says. “Customers with large [disposable] incomes now tend to buy jets and customers at the other end of the scale are opting to purchase the less expensive ultralights. Consequently, our annual sales have remained flat for a number of years, with around 1% of the total Piper fleet being upgraded a year.”

For Cessna, the picture is similar. John Doman, Cessna vice-president for worldwide propeller sales, says: “As a rule of thumb, around 85% of our single-engine market is in the USA, and Europe accounts for around half of the remaining 15%. “Between 2001 and 2005 sales of the 172, 182 and 206 to Europe have remained flat, at around 215 aircraft.” Cessna, Doman adds, sells an average of 43 aircraft to Europe a year. “This year we have sold around 17, but we usually sell more in the second half.”

Adding to the traditional airframers’ woes since 2000 is the arrival in Europe of a clutch of new players, notably Austria’s Diamond Aircraft and Duluth, Minnesota-based Cirrus Design, each challenging for market dominance with a range of fresh, high-performance composite designs.

Negative image

Cirrus is the second-largest manufacturer of light piston-single aircraft worldwide and is now one of the leading players in Europe, with plans to deliver up to 100 SR20 and SR22 piston singles to the region this year. However, despite the success of its SR series, Cirrus, like its industry counterparts, is facing countless obstacles – not least political and social ignorance and the widespread negative portrayal of private flying – which Cirrus chief executive Alan Klapmeier says are stifling the growth of general aviation across the continent.

“When people picture general aviation they see a bunch of wealthy guys flying circuits from a local aerodrome on Saturday or Sunday,” Klapmeier says. “While we should continue to embrace this aspect of general aviation, we have to get the message across that the industry is not elitist. It is a means of personal transport for business and recreational purposes.”

This poor image has played a significant part in the demise of local aerodromes and the consequent fight by operators to retain access to airports. General aviation supporters argue that it is becoming harder to promote the benefits of private flying when access to many airports is thwarted or denied to light aircraft and aerodromes are closed to make way for housing estates and business parks. “Nimbyism [not in my back yard] is rife in Europe and so are Cavemen [citizens against virtually everything], and these people will continue to limit the existence of light aircraft unless we fight hard to disregard their theories and raise the level of awareness for private flying,” Klapmeier says. “Can you imagine only coaches and lorries being permitted to use the highways and car drivers being forbidden from using their cars on Sunday mornings or between noon and two o’clock on Saturday afternoons because they upset residents?” he asks.

Cessna’s Doman says that to stop general aviation from being sidelined, the industry has to prove to governments and decision-makers there is an economic benefit to flying light aircraft. “After all, the more aircraft there are flying, the better chance you have of keeping the airports open.”

Good transport is an element of an efficient economy, Klapmeier says. “In the USA, light aircraft are a popular and accepted method of business and personal transport. We have to convince more Europeans of this compelling argument for light aircraft, as business aircraft makers have successfully managed to do with their products in the last decade. There are numerous small companies with bases jotted around Europe for which light aircraft could prove a significant economic benefit. They offer convenience and flexibility that you cannot get with other forms of transport and time is a scarce resource.”

Pushing for change

Manufacturers agree that to alter popular opinion and bring light aviation from the fringe into the mainstream, it is vital to introduce new people to the market. “You can’t expand GA in Europe by selling to aircraft nuts,” says Klapmeier. “We must stimulate demand for personal air transport, which has a huge benefit beyond current pilots.”

Molly Martin Pearce, New Piper’s director of dealer relations and sales, agrees. “We have to convince potential buyers that there is value to our aircraft. The market is not a fixed size and we need to grow it,” she says. New Piper has widened its marketing approach to Europe and, through its local dealerships, promotes its aircraft range at shows that are synonymous with high-end products such as yachts and luxury holidays.

Klapmeier suggests that air show organisers should widen their appeal beyond aviation professionals. “Air shows should not be about aviation people, but about introducing new people to aviation. That must be the way forward if we are to make significant impact here.” Cirrus has begun to advertise in magazines such as Forbes, aimed at high net-worth individuals, and its efforts are slowly bearing fruit. “Once people get into our aircraft and fly for the first time, most question why they haven’t tried it before.”

Cirrus has been credited by other manufacturers for introducing the modern glass cockpit to light aircraft, with the Avidyne Entegra sold as standard on its models. Cessna’s Doman describes the introduction as a watershed event, by making flying more appealing to existing and new entrants, and helping to alter the image of flying as complicated and cumbersome.

“When we introduced the Garmin G1000 glass cockpit on our line-up two years ago we said it would take 10 years to phase out the traditional round dial-equipped models. But we have only received six orders from our dealer network. The rest are for the glass cockpit,” he says. New Piper offers the Avidyne Entegra glass cockpit on its 11-strong aircraft line-up, from the entry-level Warrior to the Meridian single-engine turboprop.

While widening the appeal of light aircraft is essential to expanding the market, the rate of growth can only be sustained if the cost of entry is low enough to sweep up new entrants. Manufacturers offer a host of finance packages to ease the acquisition process, while Cirrus is considering the expansion into Europe of its Cirrus Share fractional ownership programme, if the North American programme is successful. “The programme is designed to get more people into their own machine in a simple and affordable way by sourcing from Cirrus’s database of contacts up to four potential owners for each SR20 or SR22,” Klapmeier says. “If you knock down the barriers to ownership, people will happily spend money on an aircraft. We are knocking down these barriers one by one,” he says.

Cessna, however, has no plans to offer a fractional programme in Europe, having unsuccessfully launched a US-based scheme in the late 1990s. However, the company is developing a light sport aircraft (LSA), which Doman says could play a vital role, not only in increasing Cessna’s European market share, but also expanding private flying and revitalising the training industry on the continent. “There is no end in sight for rising fuel prices, but a low-cost entry-level product like this LSA should introduce more people to the Cessna brand and widen the appeal of light aircraft,” he says.

New Piper, meanwhile, is evaluating its line-up, having completed an extensive market survey to determine its future project strategy, which will include new products or innovations every year, the company says. Martin Pearce says: “We won’t make a decision on new products until we have evaluated the research, but we do appreciate the need to entice more people into our industry through new products and innovation.”

As well as the issues that face plane-makers everywhere, such as fuel prices and environmental pressures, Europe’s diversity presents a particular challenge for light aircraft manufacturers but its expanding and affluent population may also offer massive potential.

Source: Flight International