VERO BEACH — Piper Aircraft delivered 45 planes — including 22 from its higher end Malibu, Matrix, and Meridian fleet — with billings of just over $31 million, according to second-quarter figures released Thursday by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.The figures were a marked increase from the second quarter of 2009, when the company delivered 23 planes for revenue of $23.5 million. In the second quarter of 2008, the company, however, sold 75 planes and added $59.6 million in revenue. For January through March of this year, Piper delivered six Meridians with a price tag of just over $2 million, 9 Matrix with a top sales price of $997,500 and 7 Meridians which sell in the $800,000 price range depending on the equipment.In the trainer fleet, where the company sees a developing market in Asia, Piper sold 14 Warrior IIIs, compared to 8 in the first quarter. For the first six months, Piper has delivered 75 planes overall with billings of $49.5 billion.Piper officials have gone on record that they expect to increase shipments by more than 75 percent over the 90 aircraft sold last year. The bulk of those shipments they expect to be trainers to markets that are opening up in Asia.”We are pleased with our second-quarter performance,” said Piper’s Jackie Carlon. “We have said we expect 2010 to be about 75 percent higher (in deliveries) than in 2009 and we are on track to achieve just that.”
Carlon noted the delivery figures do not include the company’s new affiliation with the PiperSport which Piper does not build, but for which it is the worldwide distributor. The company just began distributing the product in the middle of April and thus far have delivered 16 of the specialty planes and have 41 orders waiting to be filled.
