Less than two months after completion of the sale of Raytheon Aircraft to the investment firms GS Capital Partners and Onex Partners for $3.3 billion, the newly formed Hawker Beechcraft Corp. announced its first fleet sale. Jim Schuster, Hawker Beechcraft chairman and CEO, and Mark Booth, chairman and CEO of NetJets Europe, the marketing agent of NetJets Transportes Aereos S.A., yesterday afternoon signed a contract for the purchase of 32 Hawker 4000 super-midsize business jets. Deliveries of the aircraft are expected to begin next year and continue through 2016. The value of the contract, which includes maintenance, is more than $700 million.
Including this latest order, NetJets has signed contracts for $2 billion worth of business airplanes in the last year, Booth said. NetJets Europe plans to outfit its Hawker 4000s with eight seats in a double-club configuration and always carry a flight attendant. “Our customers in Europe have been asking us for an entry-level stand-up cabin aircraft,” Booth said. The Hawker 4000 received type certification on November 21 last year but customer deliveries of the new jet won’t begin until later this year.
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