Business and general aviation fixed-wing aircraft billings soared last year, increasing by 14.3% to reach $26.7 billion, as shipments improved by 3% to 3,162 units, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) reported today. Meanwhile, helicopter billings improved by about 10% to $5.2 billion on 1,035 shipments, a 2.5% increase from 2023.

Releasing its 2024 shipment and billings report during its annual State of the Industry press conference in Washington, D.C., the association noted that collectively, values reached nearly $32 billion. “It is notable that for the first time in a decade, our companies again exceeded $30 billion in annual billings and for the second year in a row, we shipped more than 4,000 units,” said Pete Bunce, who presided over his final State of the Industry event as president and CEO of GAMA. “This strong performance provides great momentum into 2025, but it is essential that policymakers and regulators on both sides of the Atlantic recognize that for continued growth, they must work with industry on policy issues such as taxes, trade, regulations, and supply chain.”

Bunce, who is retiring in mid-April after 20 years with the association, noted that the industry is at the forefront of advancing technology. “It would be a travesty to see any of this progress halted due to policy decisions that could have unintended consequences for an industry that contributes so much.”

Except for turboprop shipments, all segments of the industry strengthened in 2024, despite complexities of the supply chain that impacted the entire industry as well as strikes that particularly took a toll on Textron Aviation deliveries. Business jets led the increases, up 4.7% to 764, which helped drive the big step forward in billings.

As demand in the training market continued to surge, piston airplane deliveries improved by 4.2% to 1,722, while piston helicopter shipments were up by one aircraft to 210 and turbine helicopters increased by 3% to 825. As for turboprops, these shipments dipped by 1.9% in 2024 to 626.

Gulfstream Aerospace alone accounted for nearly one-third of the fixed-wing billings at $8.3 billion as it began to ramp up on delivery of its new flagship the G700. The Savannah, Georgia manufacturer’s large-cabin shipments swelled by 32.6% in 2024 to 118 and its total shipments reached 136, a 22.5% gain. And these results were somewhat tempered by the slower-than-anticipated scale-up of G700 deliveries, setting the stage for more growth this year.

Bombardier contributed another $7 billion to the industry’s total billings as its deliveries improved by eight units to 146, matched evenly at 73 apiece for its Global and Challenger lines. However, the mix within differed with two fewer Globals shipped and 10 more Challengers on the year.

Conversely, though, the nearly month-long strike at the start of the fourth quarter took a toll on Textron Aviation’s results. Business jet deliveries were down 18 units and civil turboprops by six units in the fourth quarter alone. As a result, the company’s billings in 2024 slid to $3.3 billion from $3.6 billion a year earlier.

Embraer, meanwhile, enjoyed a $400 million increase in revenues in 2024 to $2 billion as it delivered 15 more aircraft in the year for a total of 130. Fourteen of that increase came from its Praetor models. Dassault saw billings similarly climb by about $400 million as it handed over five more business jets in 2024 for a total of 31.

Honda Aircraft deliveries, however, fell by half in 2024 to 11 with billings dropping from $153 million to $76 million. Eclipse did not deliver any models in the year, handing over two in 2023. However, Cirrus continues to hum along, handing over 101 of its single Vision Jets in 2024, up from 96 a year earlier.

Pilatus jet deliveries also remained strong with 51 PC-24s handed over in 2024, compared with 47 a year earlier. But its turboprop deliveries also helped dampen results for the sector, dipping from 102 in 2023 to 96 last year.

Daher reported an eight-unit increase to 82 deliveries, with most of that coming from its Kodiak utility line. Piper also saw its turboprop line improve by two deliveries to 62 in 2024. Epic further handed over nine more copies of its E1000 for a total of 26.

On the rotorcraft front, Airbus Helicopters handed over 22 more helicopters for a total of 349. These included nine more copies of its H175 super-medium and 18 more of its H145 light-twin models. These offset the 13-unit drop of H125 light-single deliveries.

Leonardo reported a nine-unit increase and the mix weighted more toward its larger aircraft with 67 of its medium-twin AW139 handed over, compared with 49 last year. This offset the drop in A119 singles from 62 last year to 54 this year.

Bell, awaiting certification for its 525, reported a one-unit improvement to 172 models.

However, Robinson Helicopter delivered one fewer for a total of 295, Sikorsky deliveries dropped by five to one on the year, and MD Helicopters delivered none, compared with nine a year earlier.

Editor's Note: This article has been updated to reflect the inclusion of Leonardo results, which were not in the preliminary data.