Diamond Aircraft Cuts Jobs
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.
