“Nowhere is the pain of a slowdown in the general aviation industry felt more deeply than in Wichita, which bills itself the “Air Capital of the World.”
That’s the start of a story in today’s USA Today about how Wichita’s aviation industry has been hurt by the economic downturn.
In a second story entitled, “Economy, ‘fat cat’ label hit corporate jet makers hard,” Hawker Beechcraft chief executive Jim Schuster estimates that sales and the value of planes sold have fallen more than 30 percent industrywide since last fall. And existing orders are being deferred or canceled at alarming rates.
This downturn is unlike others, Schuster said. In past downturns, orders fell, but companies did not sell off their planes, Schuster told USA Today. This time, they are doing just that. The ‘fat cat’ image of corporate jets has hurt the industry.
