The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) last week published its first quarter 2019 aircraft shipment and billings report. Results showed increases across the airplane segments of the industry, but a slowdown in rotorcraft shipments compared to the first quarter of 2018.

The piston airplane market led the increase in deliveries at 248 units, a 24.0 percent increase from the same period last year while turboprop and business shipments rose year-over-year, at 7.0 percent and 6.8 percent respectively. Single-engine turboprops, for example, outsold multi-engine turboprops by three to one, while total aircraft billings rose 10.5 percent to $4.24 billion from last year’s $3.83 billion. Piper Aircraft delivered 58 single-engine airplanes, Cirrus 80, Pilatus 17 and Textron 48.

Rotorcraft didn’t fare nearly so well as airplanes with piston rotorcraft shipments down to 66 units in the first quarter of 2019. During the same period in 2018, piston rotorcraft deliveries totaled 77 units indicating a 14.3 percent decline. There were 104 turbine rotorcraft shipments in the first quarter of 2019, compared to 134 in the first quarter last year indicating more than a 22 percent year-over-year decline. Rotorcraft billings came in at $0.51 billion versus last year’s figure of $0.60, a decline of just over 15 percent.