Cirrus Increases Production, Staffing
Click here for more news / Clique aqui para mais notícias
Jessica Salerno jessica_salerno@aviationweek.com
Cirrus Aircraft informed its employees that the company will increase the new aircraft production rate to eight aircraft per week. Some previously furloughed employees at the Duluth, Minn., and Grand Forks, N.D., production facilities will be called back. The announcement today follows an April 6 communication when production of new aircraft was increased to six per week. However, staffing increases were not required at that time.
Pat Waddick, executive vice president of Operations, said, "We are extremely pleased with continuing stronger sales trends that began in the first quarter. Unlike the recent change to six aircraft per week, today's change to eight per week will take somewhat longer to implement due to required staffing increases and the commensurate impact on vendor lead times. We recognize the good news this represents to many furloughed members of the Cirrus family and we are moving as quickly as possible to determine the needed skill sets and to call those folks back to work."
Brent Wouters, president and CEO, noted the company's progress while maintaining a very disciplined and focused approach. "All Cirrus Aircraft partners -- our customers, our employees, our vendors and our ownership team -- can take a measure of pride in these early results of our diligence and cooperation. The marketplace is responding to and validating the strength of our product line and the high quality and value inherent in our latest models. The recently announced 'Flight Into Known Icing' certification for SR22 and TURBO models and Cirrus Perspective by GarminTM integrated avionics suites across the product lineup are just two of the newer features that are catalyzing demand."
Cirrus Aircraft expects that the new production rate will positively affect in excess of 50 furloughed employees across all facilities in coming weeks.
SR20 photo credit: Cirrus Aircraft
