Gulfstream private jet sales continue to be powered partly by new buyers, as the manufacturer invests in infrastructure and reveals its G650 and G650ER jets have received approval from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for six-degree steep approaches at European airports.
“I won’t share an exact percentage [of new buyers], but it is a growing component of our customer base in terms of annual sales,” Scott Neal, senior vice president Worldwide Sales at Gulfstream told Corporate Jet Investor at Farnborough international Airshow, UK. “Quite a few of our first-time buyers’ first aircraft has been a G650, which has been strong testament to the strength of the brands.”
New buyers are sometimes younger than the OEM’s established customers and are very interested in sustainability topics. Gulfstream was attracting new buyers from competitors due to its new technology and high-performance product line up, he claimed. “Gulfstream saw full recovery from the impact of the pandemic certainly by the end of last year and that has carried over into this year. We continue to see strong signals from the marketplace,” Neal added.
Gulfstream had protected itself from the full impact of supply chain disruptions caused by Covid-19 by making long-running investments in its infrastructure and logistics base, according to the OEM. Over the past 20 years the manufacturer has invested $500m in product support infrastructure, said Derek Zimmerman, president of Gulfstream Customer Support. Zimmerman also disclosed the company had invested more than $1bn in spare parts. “That has allowed us to weather a lot of the ups and downs seen in supply chains over the past couple of years and logistics,” he said. “We aren’t entirely immune to that, but we have prepared ourselves to cope with circumstances just like this.”
Last month the company opened a new customer support base at Alliance Airport, Texas to serve operators in the southern US and central and South America. This follows the start of work on a new centre in Mesa, Arizona last May. Gulfstream is also prioritising investment in staff training to secure a new generation of technical talent.
During the show Gulfstream’s Farnborough Service Centre hosted the first visit of its 8,000nm range G800 model (pictured below) outside North America.
The manufacturer also disclosed that the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) had approved Gulfstream’s G650 and G650ER business jets for 6-degree steep approaches at European airports. The clearance would open a range of new destinations, with smaller runways, to the G650 fleet, said Mark Burns, president, Gulfstream.
“We are pleased to be able to increase flexibility for our G650 and G650ER European operators by giving them access to such airports as London City near the city’s financial district and even more remote airfields throughout Europe,” he said. “The G650 family’s high-speed performance advantage paired with this new certification will expand opportunities for our customers with more options for remote destinations.”
The G800 made its maiden flight on June 28th.
The new Gulfstream G800 is pictured outside the OEM’s Farnborough facility during the Farnborough Airshow earlier this month.
