Piper Trainer Sales Increase to Highest Level Since 2003

Piper Aircraft, Inc. announced today that sales of their PA-28 trainers have grown to their highest level in 14 years. Piper has been be steadily regaining market position since 2012. This year Piper is on track to deliver 87 PA-28s – a combination of single engine Archers and single engine, complex trainer, Arrows. This increase represents a 15% increase in market share over the past 5 years. In addition to the success with Piper’s PA-28 products, sales for the twin-engine Seminole continue to be strong. With the current demand and pace of sales, Piper is on track to continue to increase trainer delivery volume for 2018.

The team has been actively working with a number of flight schools and universities to help support their growing pilot training needs. As result of the team’s efforts, Piper is delighted to announce the addition of several new trainer agreements that include Aerosim Flight Academy, California Baptist University, AIMS Community College, Le Tourneau, Louisiana Tech, Big Bend Community College, and Central Washington University, and Oklahoma State University.

“Piper’s leadership in global trainer sales is evidenced by our customer base which include the most prestigious flight training institutions in the world. Our complete line up of training aircraft along with their advanced avionics offers flight schools the ease of doing business with a single vendor as well as a the economies of scale that come with standardized fleet,” said Piper Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Customer Support, Ron Gunnarson.

UND Continues to Increase Piper Trainer Fleet

Piper Aircraft, Inc. will complete delivery of UND’s trainer order for 2017 next month (August). The order received from the University of North Dakota John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences for 2017 is for a total of 20 aircraft including 16 Archer TXs and 4 Seminoles which completed delivery earlier this month. The 2017 order is part of an eight year fleet replacement contract that was signed in April of 2016 for a total of 80 Archer TXs and 20 Piper Seminoles. Since the signing of the contract, UND has taken delivery of 32 Piper trainers – 24 Archers and 8 Seminoles.

“Piper Aircraft is proud to continue to partner with the University of North Dakota in producing world-class professional pilots.” said Simon Caldecott, President and CEO of Piper Aircraft. “The progressive pilot training curriculum offered by UND combined with the advanced Piper training aircraft are ideally crafted to meet the airline industry’s growing demand for well-trained pilots with exceptional aviation skills.”

“The Piper trainers that we are adding to our fleet are equipped with state-of-the-art Garmin G1000 NXi avionics, which offer faster processing power, wireless cockpit connectivity, and a variety of other features that help improve situational awareness and make learning in the cockpit more efficient.” said Paul Lindseth, Dean of the Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences at the University of North Dakota.

ATP Flight School to Reach 100 Piper Trainers in 2018

Piper Aircraft, Inc. has announced today an order for 10 additional Archer TXs from ATP Flight School. The order comes as part of an original agreement made in April of 2013 for up to 100 aircraft to the flight school.

ATP, America’s largest private flight school, specializes in airline pilot training and pilot career development. The school initially agreed to purchase a fleet of 15 Piper Archer TX single-engine, piston-powered advanced training aircraft for delivery in late 2013; however, as ATP’s training program grew, the school expanded its agreement to include an option for 85 additional Archers, bringing the total to 100 single engine trainers.

“For the past five years we have been proud to support the team at ATP with training aircraft. ATP’s confidence in Piper and our trainer products is a testament to the robust and reliable training equipment that we manufacture but also an indication of the growing pilot training activity,” said Piper President and CEO Simon Caldecott. “Our training aircraft sales continue to grow given the availability of a complete trainer product line up as well as competitive operating costs.”

“ATP continues to expand as one of the largest private training organizations in the United States and has been transitioning our fleet to Piper products given their proven reliability, technological flexibility in cockpit avionics and instrumentation, as well as the unsurpassed operational economy,” said ATP Vice President Justin Dennis. “We look forward to continuing to integrate these new Piper Archer TXs into our curriculum.”

As their need for more single-engine Piper training aircraft increases, ATP has been exercising its option to take additional Archers. The school continues to transition to a predominately Piper training aircraft fleet and will take delivery of its 82^nd Archer next month – its 150^th Piper trainer. This aircraft (serial number 900) is particularly significant as it marks the 300^th airplane to join the ATP fleet and is Piper Aircraft’s 900^th Archer III to be manufactured.

 While all of the new ATP airplanes under the agreement with Piper have been equipped with Garmin G500 glass cockpit avionics suites, the latest order includes an option for G1000 NXi equipped aircraft with GFC 700 autopilot.