Alan Klapmeier, chairman of Cirrus Aircraft, has formed a team to raise funds to try to buy the Vision SF50 single-engine jet program from majority Cirrus owner Arcapita Bank. “I feel comfortable that we can do this,” said Klapmeier. “Obviously it’s a difficult time to be raising capital, but that means more focus on funding better projects. This is a good project to fund.” Although Cirrus has refunded about 8 percent of Vision deposits, according to president and CEO Brent Wouters, the jet program “is absolutely still under way.” There are deposits for more than 400 Visions, he told AIN.
While the news about Klapmeier’s plan to buy the jet program was released today, he plans to update attendees during a speech tomorrow morning at the annual Cirrus Migration in Duluth, Minn. He admitted, “We’ve been exploring this possibility for a while. The conclusion we’ve reached with Arcapita is that this was going to become more widespread, and rather than rumors, it was time to talk more publicly about this process.”
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