Textron chairman, president and CEO Scott Donnelly announced in the fourth-quarter investor conference call that pricing demand was too low for all models of Cessna Citation business jets and had resulted in lower deliveries compared to the same period during 2015. Plans were announced to cut the jets production levels.
“We were not willing to go to the price levels where some people wanted to go,” Donnelly said. “We traded out some volume because there were prices we weren’t willing to meet.”
For the 2016 4th quarter, Textron Aviation delivered 58 new Citation jets business jets (compared to 60 of the 2015 4th quarter). 28 King Air were delivered (compared to 33 in fourth quarter 2015). No mention was made of reducing King Air production, despite it posting lower numbers.
The end result was a profit of $135 million for the fourth quarter 2016, down from $138 million in 4th quarter year 2015.