NetJets’s taking delivery of its 100th Citation Latitude is impressive, but with the 100th aircraft now in its hands,the fractional operator now owns half of the Citation Latitudes ever built.
The original NetJets order, placed in 2015 as part of the largest order placed in business aviation history, included firm orders for 25 Latitudes, but also included options for a further 125 aircraft.
But NetJets did not end there. When the first aircraft was delivered in 2017, NetJets announced that it would order a further 50 Latitudes.
However, in an email to Corporate Jet Investor on July 5, 2019, NetJets said it currently holds orders for 135 Latitudes which include the 100 aircraft already delivered.
NetJets also says that the Latitude is the aircraft most requested by customers for flights, and it is easy to understand why. You get a lot of aircraft for your $17.3 million.
Brokers and manufacturers will frequently tell you that cabins are what sell aircraft, and the Citation Latitudes stand-up cabin is the widest in its class.
The cabin width helps creates a feeling of space within the cabin, especially for those customers moving up the Citation product line from the Citation XL series.
When designing the Citation Latitude, Cessna took the decision to keep several elements from the larger Citation Sovereign. The wings are borrowed from the Sovereign, as are the engines and tail.
Essentially, Cessna worked on a smaller, wider version of the Sovereign fuselage for the Latitude, with a fully flat floor.
The aircraft shares the same PW306D engines as the Sovereign, however the Latitude uses the D1 version of the engine, which is a touch less powerful than the straight D versions that are used on the Sovereign.
According to the AMSTAT database, Citation Latitudes are currently in service in 15 countries around the world. Aside from the NetJets fleets registered in the US and the NetJets Europe fleet registered in Portugal, Mexico has the second most Latitudes, with five aircraft registered.
Of the five aircraft, two are flying with the country’s largest operator Aerolineas Ejecutivas, one flies for a smaller operator, with the remaining two aircraft being privately owned.
Elsewhere in the Americas, two aircraft operate in Chile.
Europe has the second highest number of Latitudes operating, with 15 aircraft, although 13 aircraft operate with NetJets on the Portuguese CS- register.
France has the most Latitudes on its register in Europe, with four aircraft registered. Two aircraft are currently registered in Norway, however one aircraft is currently registered to Norwegian Special Mission, which is outfitting the aircraft before it is delivered to Japan, where it will operate for the Japan Air Self Defence Force (JASDF), performing airport calibration missions. A second aircraft will also be delivered soon.
There are two of the aircraft in operation in Asia, one in China and the other in the Philippines.
The Chinese Latitude operates for Emper General Aviation. The Chinese charter company did take delivery of two Citation Latitudes, but sold one of the aircraft earlier in 2019.
There is currently only one Citation Latitude in Africa, with a solitary aircraft operated by Execujet on behalf of a Johannesburg-based safari company.
Yearly deliveries of the Citation Latitude have been increasing steadily since the first aircraft was delivered in 2015.
According the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) with 42 aircraft delivered in its first full year of deliveries in 2016, 54 deliveries in 2017, and 57 in 2018.
During the first quarter of 2019 Cessna delivered 14 Latitudes, the highest number of Latitudes it has delivered in any first quarter since the beginning of deliveries. Textron Aviation, the parent company of Cessna, will announce its second quarter result on July 17, 2019.
