Honda Aircraft plans to ramp up production of the HA-420 HondaJet to 80 units per year by mid-2019, company president and CEO Michimasa Fujino told Japanese reporters visiting its plant in Greensboro, North Carolina, on Friday. By the end of Honda’s 2018 financial year, meaning March 2019, “We'd like to be near full production of around 80 units,” he said.
Fujino reported that the current rate is 36 aircraft per year, though delivery numbers released by GAMA on Thursday do not yet reflect this. According to the GAMA data, six HondaJets were delivered in the third quarter—one fewer than in the second quarter. In the first nine months, 16 of the $4.85 million light jets have been handed over to customers.

The company received its FAA production certificate on July 11, authorizing Honda to produce, flight test and issue airworthiness certificates for the HondaJet for customer deliveries. At that time, it said it had been steadily ramping up production since receiving FAA type certification for the HondaJet late last year. The twinjet has since racked up approvals from the EASA and Mexico’s Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil (DGAC).