The investment, to be spread over seven years, will pay for building plants for large-cabin planes like the G650 along with maintenance capacity for all models, Joe Lombardo, president of Gulfstream, said in a telephone interview. New hires in technology and engineering will be followed by manufacturing and service jobs, Lombardo said.
“We are already seeing more demand for our large-cabin, long-range aircraft and are having a pretty good year so far,” he said. Sales for the G650, which typically carries 8 passengers and as many as 16, will be driven by international demand, he said.
Gulfstream’s planned expansion and recruitment program comes a month after a survey commissioned by avionics maker Honeywell International Inc. said the recovery in the global business-jet market may occur in late 2011 and accelerate in 2012, a year later than a previous estimate.
Honeywell’s forecast that large-cabin aircraft like the G650 will “pace the recovery, and the mid-cabin and smaller planes will follow,” is “pretty accurate,” Lombardo said.
Gulfstream, which announced a five-week production furlough in July 2009, is seeing a recovery aided by China as well as the Middle East and Brazil, Lombardo said. “Asia Pacific is a strong market right now and will continue to be that way,” he said.
North American Market
Still, “we have not given up on North America,” Lombardo said, pointing to orders from major corporations that recently purchased Gulfstream aircraft. He declined to name the customers.
For the quarter that ended in September, Gulfstream booked “more orders than we had in any quarter since the downturn began in 2009,” Lombardo said in a statement. Service centers are seeing more volume because flying hours are rising, he said.
Orders for the G650 have held steady at 200, he said.
Gulfstream’s expansion has been aided by the company’s ability to “still generate enough cash” even in a “tough economy,” Lombardo said.