Cessna has made its first European delivery of a Citation Mustang entry level jet as the airframer prepares to hand over around half a dozen aircraft this year across the region.
Cessna has chalked up over 350 orders for its six-seat aircraft, 24 of which have entered service to date. Cessna says it is on track to deliver 44 aircraft in 2007 from its Independence, Kansas-based manufacturing facility, ramping up to 100 next year and 150 Mustangs a year by 2009.
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"We have secured around 140 orders for the Mustang in Europe to date, half from corporate and private owners - many of whom are moving up from traditional piston twins - and the other half from charter companies," says Cessna's vice-president for international sales Trevor Esling. Europe is an ideal market for the Mustang, he says, due to the short distances between towns and cities and the abundance of airports.
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A unnamed German company will be the first commercial operator when it takes delivery of a single Mustang later this year. "UK-charter operator London Executive Aviation, which has seven Mustangs on order, is expected to receive its first aircraft soon after," says Esling.
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Meanwhile, FlightSafety International's Farnborough UK-based simulator training facility will receive its first Mustang simulator by mid-2008 - about a year later than expected. Cessna says due to the overwhelming demand for the Mustang in the USA, the simulator that had been intended for the UK was sent to beef up FlightSafety's Wichita training centre.
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Source: Flight International
