Tim Travis of Raytheon Aircraft has told EBAN that the company will not be ceasing production of the Beech 1900D turboprop, despite recent reports to the contrary. The corporate communications manager said: “We haven’t stopped building the Beech 1900D – that was something that came out of the Singapore Airshow and it was not correct. We still plan to build approximately 13 this year and we’ll continue to build them on cash orders after that.”

Travis did however confirm that the Hawker 450 is on hold pending a decision to continue later this year. Raytheon will either continue with the programme, shelve it or look at producing a Hawker Horizon or Premier I derivative. “We felt that the way the economy has been going, we wanted to take a step back and decide upon the best way to proceed. Obviously it’s been a tough market, what with the slowdown of the economy. But we are seeing a tightening up of the used market, which usually precedes the market for new aircraft also picking up.”

The company is now focusing on its current aircraft, which include the recently introduced Hawker 800XP, now in production. “We’re concentrating on the basics, we’ve had lay-offs of around 2,000 people over the last year and there is now a strong push towards improving our customer service. Raytheon is looking to stabilise the company and then move forward.”