Diamond Aircraft Cuts Jobs

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed)
Jan 14th 2009 at 2:02PM

More bad news from another maker of small private planes. Canadian company Diamond Aircraft will be laying off more than one quarter of its employees in London, Ontario. The aircraft manufacturer says it is retrenching 180 employees out of a workforce of 684. The cuts reflect a change in production caused by a a decline in orders for Diamond's four-seater DA40, a plane which costs $260,000 to $340,000. The company has a steady stream of orders coming and is still working on getting the D-Jet, a single engine personal light jet, certified and into production.

It's been a rough season for small plane manufacturers. The decrease in orders and the cancellation of existing orders already on the books have caused many to lay off workers and cut production down significantly. Cirrus recently began production again but Hawker Beechcraft and Cessna are looking at making further cuts to their production staff.

Tags: d jet, diamond aircraft, DiamondAircraft, DJet

Filed under: Wings

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willzville Jan 14th 2009 2:39PM

TBH their DA40 is a piece of junk. However from what I've heard of their 'D-Jet' it should be nothing short of spectacular.

VLJ's (or a 'personal light jet' as this post calls it) are the future, but because of the current economy they haven't got the attention they deserve.

If your someone that can't afford a conventional jet, with its expenses and all, why not go for a Very Light Jet (VLJ). Lease a bargin-bin hangar, buy a VLJ on a long term instalment program and fly the jet yourself (I'm personally 45 hours towards my licence!!!). Now that's 'Luxe' for cheap.

Deidre Woollard Jan 14th 2009 2:44PM

Good point, Willzville. The news was full of the coming of the VLJ in 2007 and early 2008 and there were plenty of articles on air taxis and people zipping around on short jaunts on planes. The current economy and this summer's high fuel prices put a temporary end to that. The economic turmoil will end eventually but I think the cost of fuel for these planes is a more significant challenge to the potential dominance of the VLJ.

steve Jan 14th 2009 5:16PM

Diamond aircraft are dangerous. and bought by flashy new money (green pilots) types. Is it any surprise that cirrus and diamond were the first to suffer from the downturn? Status seekers were the first to abandon their planes.

As for diamonds their DA42 twins had problems with engines failing on takeoff due to an incorrectly designed electrical system. I'll quote from someone else below:

"The scenario unfolded thus - the battery died and the aircraft had to be jump started. Takeoff went OK but raising the gear caused an electrical drop which normally a charged battery would have masked. The result was, both ECU's shut down, and therefore both engines."

Not to mention all the new pilots in very hot sports
planes filled with gizmos they don't know how to use.
I am excited to have a VLJ in the hands of an experienced pilot though.