Cessna Slows Citation Mustang Production
By: Matt Thurber
June 10, 2010
Business Aviation Aircraft
Cessna Aircraft instituted rolling furloughs on May 17 affecting up to 200 people at the company’s Independence, Kan. factory, delaying production of the Citation Mustang light jet through early August.
Responding to questions at the Electrical Products Group Annual Conference last month, Textron president and CEO Scott Donnelly said that Mustang sales have been softer than expected, “and if we need to modulate our production rates there, we will do that. We have a couple of issues around the supply chain, driven by the floods in Rhode Island, that might cause us to have do a little production break.
We might shut that down for a little bit and figure out when to bring it back. Donnelly added, “We’re going to have some cancellations on the Mustang side that are sort of out-year deals.
We have one customer [that has] taken a number of deliveries. [It is] doing very well, but [it doesn’t] see the demand to take deliveries over the next couple of years.
According to a spokeswoman, Cessna plans to deliver more than 100 Mustangs this year and will deliver completed units during the rolling furlough.