By Doug Cameron Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES The head of Cessna Aircraft Co. said Sunday he expected a "slight uptick" in deliveries of its key Citation business jet this year alongside a modest 2012 recovery in what has been a depressed overall market over the past three years. Cessna accounts for a quarter of group revenues at parent Textron Inc. (TXT), and its product range has been restructured after underperforming the sector during a severe slump in orders and deliveries since 2008's peak, weighed by tight corporate travel budget and criticism from some U.S. lawmakers of business jet usage. Scott Ernest, the former General Electric Co. (GE) executive who took over as Cessna CEO in July, said Citation deliveries were set to rise this year, though this hinged on order rates keeping their existing momentum through the rest of the year. Cessna's business has in recent years been heavily weighted towards the second half, and deliveries slid to just 179 in 2010 from their 2008 peak of 467, a decline which prompted mass layoffs. It delivered 69 planes in the first half of 2011. "We also believe that the business jet market will show modest recovery in 2012," said Ernest in a brief statement ahead of presentations at the National Business Aircraft Association expo in Las Vegas, the sector's premier trade show. Cessna's focus on smaller jets has left it lagging the more robust recent rise in orders for larger and longer-range corporate jets. The keenly watched annual jet forecast from Honeywell International Inc. (HON) released Saturday suggested global demand for new business jets is expected to remain basically flat in 2012 after several years of depressed sales. Growth is likely to remain below previous projections through the middle of the decade, according to Honeywell. "Last year, a solid recovery in 2012 was anticipated," according to the aerospace supplier's annual business-jet market update, which is closely watched by the industry. "However, disappointing rates of global economic recovery have added considerable uncertainty." Honeywell sees new business-jet deliveries falling to between 600 and 650 this year from 732 last year, a decline of at least 11%, and well below the peak of 1,140 aircraft delivered in 2008. -By Doug Cameron, Dow Jones Newswires; 312-750-4135; doug.cameron@dowjones.com (Andy Pasztor contributed to this article.)
